Daily Archives: March 24, 2020

The Republic of Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands located in the Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar.

Pre-European colonization the islands were known by Arab navigators on trading voyages, but were never inhabited.

Eventually Seychelles was settled by France in the 18th century, but it wasn't long before the British fought for control. A lengthy struggle between France and Great Britain for the islands ended in 1814, when they were ceded to the latter.

Although the new governor to the islands was British, he governed according to French rules, and allowed previous French customs to remain intact. Slavery was completely abolished in 1835, and the island nation subsequently began to decline as exportation decreased.

The anti-slavery stance was taken very seriously by the British government, and conditions started improving when it was realized that coconuts could be grown with less labour.

In the late 19th century, Seychelles became a place to exile troublesome political prisoners, most notably from Zanzibar, Egypt, Cyprus and Palestine.

Independence for the islands came in 1976, after the Seychelles People's United Party was formed and led by France-Albert Rene, campaigning for socialism and freedom from Britain.

Socialism was brought to a close with a new constitution and free elections in 1993. President France-Albert Rene, who had served since 1977, was re-elected in 2001, but stepped down in 2004.

Vice President James Michel took over the presidency and in July 2006 was elected to a new five-year term.

Upon independence in 1976, economic growth has steadily increased, led by the tourism sector and tuna fishing. In the past few years, the government has also created incentives for foreign investments. Per capita, Seychelles is the most indebted country in the world and currently had a population of 90,024.

This page was last updated on April 7, 2017.

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Seychelles Map / Geography of Seychelles / Map of ...

Oceans cover over 70% of our blue planet and are vital to its health. For instance carbon moves in and out of the ocean and can be stored there for thousands of years. Oceans are also a source of food and livelihood to millions of people, and to the economies of coastal countries. They are also the largest habitable space on the planet and house many different organisms.

But theres a great deal that scientists still dont know about the worlds oceans.

The deep sea is traditionally defined as below 200m. Usually light from the sun cant reach these depths and they are home to organisms that have special adaptations to live here. These waters are often in remote areas, and are beyond the reach of all but specialist technologies, therefore much of the deep sea remains under-explored.

Exploration is always revealing species that are new to science. Many of these could be directly important to humans, for example some contain specific compounds that may aid medicinal advances.

The Seychelles and the Maldives are now jointly launching a new deep-sea scientific mission in the Indian Ocean that is focused on seamounts large land-forms that rise from the ocean floor but dont reach the surface. Because of a limit in equipment and experts, there have not been any systematic biological surveys of this region at these depths before. Historically, this type of research has been near countries with better access to resources, such as those on the shores of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

The mission of the First Descent: Midnight Zone is to understand what lives in the water, from the surface to the seabed. We also want to know how this changes from waters in the Seychelles to the Maldives.

This information will eventually be available on open access databases, building on the global knowledge of the deeper ocean for other scientists and policy makers.We hope that this information enables countries to understand how to manage their oceans better.

Our expedition is made up of scientists from many different disciplines who are coming together to document biological, physical and chemical parameters. This will provide us with valuable baseline data which can also be used to predict life in other sites that we couldnt explore.

The gear we will use ranges from traditional oceanographic technologies to newly developed equipment.

For example we will use a multibeam echo-sounder a type of sonar to visualise the shape and depth of the seamounts. Sensors and water samplers will examine water columns imagine columns of water from the surface of the ocean to the bottom. Neuston nets like a net between two floats are used to sample zooplankton and microplastics in the neuston layer, or top few centimetres of the ocean.

The most advanced piece of technology we will use is the full depth submersible, it looks like an underwater pod that can go to extreme depths. This enables us to explore the steep slopes of the seamounts. This will allow us to film and record transects of the seabed and also take samples of specific organisms of interest with the manipulator arm. We expect to find cold water coral reefs and gardens of soft corals and sponges all home to diverse life.

This expedition will take five weeks, operating 24 hours a day.

We are exploring six seamounts that were prioritised by stakeholders such as government ministries from the Seychelles and Maldives.

Seamounts are interesting to explore because they are a hotspot for marine life. This is because they rise up from the seafloor and push deep, cold nutrient rich waters up around and over them to the surface. Also, because theyre hard and sediment cant settle on the slopes and vertical surfaces, organisms can attach to them. In the deep sea the seabed is mostly rock, covered by a thick layer of sediment.

In addition to this information, by visiting locations east and west of the Central Indian Ridge, we hope to investigate whether the ridge is a potential barrier to organisms moving. This is important to help the understanding of genetic connectivity across the region. Genetic connectivity can help us understand where isolated, and therefore more vulnerable, populations of organisms are.

Seychelles is to announce its massive project to protect 30% of their waters. Data from the expedition will help inform this process. This protection includes both no-take zones and the banning of some activities.

In the Maldives a process of marine spatial planning ocean zoning to remove or include specific activities has just started. Documenting life in the deep waters enables us to ground assumptions on life made at these depths, and could show areas that need future protection.

Finally some of the seamounts that we will visit are in the high seas. This area is beyond national jurisdiction and is currently receiving international attention because of a UN treaty thats being negotiated. Shining a spotlight on seamount life could help galvanise action by the parties and the new knowledge that comes from the data collected could help future management of the region.

Sheena Talma, a key scientist working on the mission, also contributed to this article.

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Why an Indian ocean deep sea mission will help the Maldives and Seychelles manage their oceans - The Conversation Africa

Sherin Francis is one of the hardest working CEOs in the travel and tourism industry, welcoming visitors to her island nation with open arms for many years.

Sherin is the CEO of the Seychelles Tourism Board, a country that is relying on tourism for its people to prosper. Seychelles is also paradise on Earth in a lot of ways, recognized as one of the most beautiful travel destinations and tourism infrastructures in the world. Located in the Indian Ocean, Seychelles is fragile, like any island region. Seychelles is also a country where everyone is a friend, and no one is considered an enemy.

Its important to maintain Seychelles as a beautiful travel destination and to protect its people.

Today Sherin Francis addressed friends of Seychelles and the world with this heartwarming message and advice:

The world as we know has taken a challenging turn on 30 January 2020, when the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

We anticipated that we would be affected as a destination but even more so as individuals, we were concerned for our families, friends, acquaintances, business partners all over the world.

In the past few weeks, we have witnessed the spreading of an aggressive virus that has proven difficult for the medical corps around the world to understand and manage. Our thoughts go to everyone around the world as we are all affected by this crisis.

Over the past few weeks, I believe people have realized that the tourism industry is a very fragile one; everything that happens locally and internationally can affects the industry we all depend on as a country.

It is a sad moment for us to see the industry we cherish be brought to its knees; borders closing, airlines and cruise companies shutting their operations, hotel partners announcing the reduction of their activities.

The fast evolution of the situation makes it very difficult at this point for us as the Tourism Board to estimate and analyze the impact and damage to the industry and much less to plan the recovery of our industry. These sad days are fuelling our motivation as a Tourism Board to work harder to make sure that our industry now critically incapacitated shines again when brighter days will come.

We are currently working on various plans to bring Seychelles Tourism to new dawn basing ourselves on a short-term and a long-term plan.

Our short-term plan would be on the assumption that the situation does not deteriorate. If people are required to stay in confinement at home or if there is a countrywide fear, we will have to wait for these to pass before it can be executed.

Since at STB, we believe there are positive things that come out of everything even from crisis as this one, we now have the possibility to shift our marketing efforts locally and provide some supports to partners who are willing to tap into the staycation segment. We are looking forward to this new challenge!!!

On the long run, our recovery plan to get back on our feet as a destination after this crisis will depend on six major things including:

Above all, for our plan to work, we will need your continued support.

I would like to commend all STB staff for their dedication in this time of need. A special thought to the frontline staff at the Seychelles International Airport, at the Praslin Airport, the La Digue Jetty and also all staff stationed in the four corners of the world.

I am grateful to the industry partners, as most of them have responded positively in all instances when contacted by our teams. This has reassured us in showing that they have our industry at heart and are dedicated to its wellbeing.

My message to the industry and our partners is to remain strong in these trying times, encourage travelers to postpone and not cancel their travel. To all of our travelers, I am urging you to postpone your travel, stay home and travel later.

Remember we are all in this together!

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Seychelles Tourism Board CEO: Stay home and travel later - we are all in this together! - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News

21 March 2020 | Defence

This afternoon, President Danny Faure chaired the first joint command chain meeting with the Seychelles Peoples Defence Forces, the Police and Intelligence Service.

The joint command chain has been established with the task of maintaining law and order in the country under any eventuality that may arise as a result of measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. It serves as a mechanism to ensure proper coordination and support for the Department of Health, and compliance for its advisories.

In the meeting, officials present had the opportunity to receive a full briefing on the existing public health emergency situation from the Department of Health, and discuss preparations for any additional measures that may be required to effectively respond. It was confirmed that there are currently no cases of community transmission in Seychelles.

Present at the meeting this afternoon was the Vice-President, Mr Vincent Meriton, Designated Minister, Mrs Macsuzy Mondon, Chief of Defence Forces, ColonelClifford Roseline, Commisioner of Police, Mr Kishnan Labonte, Attorney General, Mr Frank Ally, Secretary of State for Presidential Affairs, Mrs Aude Labaleine,Secretary of State for Health, Ambassador Marie-Pierre Lloyd, Chief of Staff of SPDF, Colonel Michael Rosette, Principal Secretary for Risk and Disaster Management, Mr Paul Labaleine, CEO of the Healthcare Agency, Dr Danny Louange, the Public Health Commissioner, Dr Jude Gedeon,Assistant Commisioners of Police, Mr Ted Barbe and Mr Romano Songore and Director General of the Seychelles Inteligience Service, Mr Benediste Hoareau.

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President Faure chairs first Joint Command Chain meeting - Office of the President of the Republic of Seychelles