Monthly Archives: April 2022

Apr 13 2022Reviewed by Alex Smith

Stingrays have had to overcome a number of challenges, primarily due to overfishing. Researchers from the Save Our Seas Foundation DArros Research Centre (SOSF-DRC) and the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity have been trying to find out more regarding the lives of stingrays in Seychelles.

Their office is the newly safeguarded DArros Island and St Joseph Atoll. Here, soft white sands result in shades of deep blue and turquoise. Beneath the waves, this pristine ecosystem is considered to be the residence of biodiverse coral reefs.

In a new study reported in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, the researchers plunged into the significance of this altered habitat for susceptible stingrays. Sixty individuals from three species of stingray that reside in St Joseph Atoll year-round were monitored for a year on average. Environmental factors, like the temperatures and tides, were recorded during this time.

St Joseph Atoll is known to be the ideal place for such research. Comprising a deeper enclosed lagoon, a shallow uninterrupted reef flat, and two significant habitat types, it is a significant nursery area for the three study species: the porcupine whipray, the mangrove whiprayand the cowtail stingray. Sea-grass beds, thatare dispersed over the reef flats, are at times exposed and sometimes covered by water.

A method known as passive acoustic telemetry was utilized by scientists to follow the movements of stingrays. Around 20 stingrays were tagged from each species along with acoustic transmitters. Around 40 underwater tracking stations were distributed throughout the lagoon and reef-flat habitats. These stations tend to pick up the special sound pulses that have been emitted by each transmitter.

They discovered that stingrays prefer the shallows safety. However, environmental extremes like very low tides or specifically high or low water temperatures drive these rays into deeper waters, where they are subjected to threats from bigger and predatory sharks. The conditions here tend to be highly stable, but, it is also likely that their favored habitat will alter as the climate changes and extremes becomea more regular occurrence.

The changes that happened have been noticed at DArros Island and St Joseph Atoll. Following severe coral bleaching that happened throughout the Western Indian Ocean, these flexible reefs are displaying signs of recovery.

For marine life, the Seychellois celebrate sanctuaries. In March 2020, via the Seychelles Marine Spatial Plan initiative, the government designated the waters encircling DArros Island and St Joseph Atoll as zone 1 and zone 2 equivalent marine protected areas.

This safety identifies the significance of DArros and St Joseph for threatened species and the wider ecosystem, which Chantel Elston, the papers lead author, and an SOSF project leader, has experienced firsthand.

Stingrays are really important for keeping oceans healthy, especially in tropical places like Seychelles. This research helps to present further evidence that the isolated St Joseph Atoll provides suitable habitat for threatened stingrays and that the newly announced marine protected area will have real conservation benefits.

Chantel Elston, Study Lead Author and Project Leader, Save Our SEAS Foundation

Studies like this help to protect vulnerable groups like stingrays more effectively. As Helena Sims, SOSF Seychelles Ambassador, explains, When you know what the priority habitats for vulnerable species are and how and when they move around, management plans can be developed for their conservation.

Also, when marine management is concerned, the Seychellois are aheadof the game. This last batch of marine protected area designations implies that 30% of Seychelles waters are currently protected, a decade ahead of the international target.

That the people of Seychelles are endowed with a pristine environment is not debated. In fact, the right to live in a healthy environment and the duty of citizens to protect, preserve and improve the environment and its cultural heritage are embodied in the Republics constitution.

Helena Sims, Seychelles Ambassador, Save Our SEAS Foundation

There is a very powerful conservation ethic, with the government concentrated on making ecological investments for the next generations.

The beauty of the nation has captured the heart of the Save Our Seas Foundations Founder, Abdulmohsen Abdulmalik Al-Sheikh.

I am constantly amazed by the abundant natural wonder in Seychelles and what this new research has revealed about the behavior of rays at DArros is no exception. Their intricate lives are fascinating and highlight the importance of sites like St Joseph for safeguarding the natural heritage of Seychelles.

Abdulmohsen Abdulmalik Al-Sheikh, Founder, Save Our Seas Foundation

Since 2004 the SOSF-DRC has been on a mission to conserve and display the ecological integrity of DArros Island and St Joseph Atoll through research, tracking, restoration and education.

Elston, C., et al. (2022) Stingray Habitat Use Is Dynamically Influenced by Temperature and Tides. Frontiers in Marine Science. doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.754404.

Source: https://saveourseas.com/

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Researchers Attempt to Know More About the Lives of Stingrays in Seychelles - AZoCleantech

President Wavel Ramkalawan and his closest associates are in-focus as a landmark corruption investigation in the Seychelles gathers steam. Nearly two decades after the alleged offences took place, the Seychelles, in December 2021, charged ex-President France-Albert Rens wife and son, together with several economic advisors to then-President Ren, with a range of corruption and anti-money laundering offenses. Weapons possession and terrorism offences followed closely thereafter in February 2022.

The case however, appears to be bogged down amidst new evidence that implicates President Wavel Ramkalawans inner circle in the alleged abuses. This includes Vice President Ahmed Afif and former-President James Michel, accused of receiving the stolen state funds and pinning the charges on the ex-Presidents family members and public servants.

The corruption case relates to the disappearance of 50 million US dollars gifted by the United Arab Emirates to the Seychelles people in 2002 at a time of economic crisis.

The accused read like a whos who of the previous government. This includes former President Rens wife Sarah Ren; President Rens son Leslie Benoiton, a senior military officer; Mukesh Valabhji, one of the island nations most prominent businessmen and former director of a government development agency; Valabhjis wife Laura, who was legal counsel to several of Ramkalawan and Afifs rivals; Maurice Loustau-Lalanne, a senior government official and vice-presidential candidate who was widely expected to challenge Ramkalawan for the presidency and Lekha Nair, a former public servant and right-hand to ex-President James Michel. Most recently Fahreen Rajan, an accountant who managed Vlabhjis hotels and finances was included in the list of suspects. Two further suspects arrested on weapons charges are 75 year old Antoine Leopold Payet, retired Chief of the Seychelles Defense Forces, and 81 year old Frank Marie, the former head of the Presidential Guard and the closest security official to ex-President Ren.

The case drew headlines in December and January when the government of the Seychelles indicted the accused soon after the Pandora Papers thrust the Seychelles into the limelight and Ramkalawans government came under public pressure from the European Union (EU) and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) to take action against endemic corruption in the country. Suffering from a severe economic downturn brought on by the Covid -19 pandemic and a sharp loss in electoral support, the Seychelles government was initially thought to be shoring up its public image at home and abroad with the indictments. A statement of support from the European Union, and even the countrys removal from the EU tax haven black list, were quick to follow.

Sources close to the investigation claim to have new evidence that implicates ex-President James Michel and Vice President Ahmed Afif in the theft of the Emirati grant, throwing the governments case into disarray. Documentary evidence submitted by the governments own investigators has shown that the bulk of the disappeared funds were spent on fuel and food at the height of the 2002 economic slump. Additional sums were actually paid into companies under the control of associates of James Michel and Ahmed Afif.

Michel, who served as Minister of Finance at the time and fled nearly a decade ago to Abu Dhabi, would have needed to sign off on each transfer from the trouble-plagued Seychelles Marketing Board, the receiving entity of the Emirati funds. Afif, who served at the time in an executive capacity at the Central Bank and is now the countrys Vice President, would also have signed off on any transfers, legitimate or otherwise.

The case is further complicated by the discussed weapons charges, characterized by lawyers at Kobre & Kim, the Washington-based law firm, as a show trial, founded on a politically motivated prosecution case riddled with errors of fact and procedural defects.

Brigadier Payet and Lieutenant Colonel Marie, ex-President Rens closest military advisors, are charged with importing weapons for the Seychelles Defense Forces and Presidential Guard, despite the fact that when taken, these actions were within their professional duties and even approved by the government. Attorney Jonathan Huth of Kobre & Kim labeled the case the arbitrary application of law, with the Seychelles government, judges and prosecution acting as if driven by one and the same political motivation, ungoverned by any notion of the rule of law.

Public sentiment on the island nation is deeply divided by the governments conduct in the controversial case, which has put behind bars a popular first lady and some of the countrys best known security and economic figures. The leading candidate to replace Ramkalawan has also been incarcerated, cutting him off from his political supporters and undermining his growing popular base. A debate over defendants rights has also erupted, with the accused allegedly denied access to counsel and held in degrading conditions. Petitions have been lodged by the defendants at the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights and the Supreme Court of Seychelles.

The governments case is being prosecuted by May De Silva of the Seychelles Anti-Corruption Commission and Steven Powles QC of Doughty Chambers in London, interestingly enough a lawyer whose expertise is human rights.

Mounting anomalies in the evidence and conduct of the prosecution are understood to have thrown the case into disarray, with one informed source stating, The case fell apart on day one, once the evidence was revealed. As Ramkalawan seeks international legitimacy and to shore-up Seychelles banking standards, the case may prove more challenging than anticipated for the new government.

*Kate Flask is an American freelancer and digital nomad who studied creative writing in the UK. She has a personal & professional interest in East Africa & Indian Ocean Islands and is the managing director of Seychelles Watch. Follow her work on Twitter.

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Seychelles: President Ramkalawan Gets More Than He Bargained For In Ongoing Corruption Trial OpEd - Eurasia Review

One of the world's smallest capital cities

(Image credit: seychelles view/Alamy Stock Photo)

Built on land reclaimed from the sea, Seychelles' tiny capital city can't get any bigger but with a vibrant culture and fascinating history, it doesn't need to.

O

One minute I was out over a seemingly endless ocean en route to Seychelles. The next, dark granite cliffs filled the plane's window, swirling in and out of the clouds with all the dark mystery of ships lost at sea. I became convinced that the plane was about to land on the water or crash into a mountain, so little space did there seem to be between the two.

The Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands, a sublime meeting of sea and land beneath a sky of impossible blues. Everything here, from the towering volcanic spine on the largest island of Mah to the 1,800 kilometres of ocean that separate Mah from mainland Africa, seems to happen on a grand scale.

Everything, that is, except Victoria, Seychelles' tiny capital city.

There are other capitals around the world with smaller populations: San Marino or Vatican City, for example; or a handful of tiny Pacific Island cities. Even so, Victoria's population of around 30,000 is modest by the standards of most seats of national power.

With a population of around 30,000, Victoria is relatively small for a capital city (Credit: imageBROKER/Alamy Stock Photo)

If there seems to be little space along Mah's narrow coastal strip for an international airport, there's equally little room for a capital city. Mah measures just 20 sq km; it would take barely 10 minutes to walk around the perimeter of the centre's tight grid of streets. Houses climb the surrounding hills until the terrain becomes too steep.

That Victoria could even make it to this size owes much to past geographical engineering.

"Half of Victoria is reclaimed land," said George Camille, one of Seychelles' best-known artists who was born in Victoria and has spent much of his life here. "The sea was where the taxi stand now is."

For such a small city, Victoria does a good job of telling the story of modern Seychelles through its buildings and its tightly concentrated clamour. It is an antidote to the popular Seychelles image of beaches and palm trees and a life far from the world and its noise.

Busy, urban Victoria shows visitors another side of Seychelles (Credit: imageBROKER/Alamy Stock Photo)

Victoria has surprisingly deep roots in its narrow plot of soil. The French founded the city in 1778, a time when the American Revolutionary War was raging, the penal colony of Australia was still just an idea and much of Africa remained untouched by Europeans. The new settlement which was by all accounts a modest place of timber-and-granite houses, an army barracks and pens for keeping tortoises was named, rather more grandly, L'tablissement du Roi (the Kings establishment).

Little was done to grow the new city, either by the French who first built it or the British who took it over in 1811. It was a harbour, a port, a convenient waystation en route to elsewhere. So small and unimportant was it that it took the British 30 years to change the name to Victoria; they did so in 1841 to commemorate the queen's royal marriage to Prince Albert.

Its history was, for the most part, a minor affair for much of the 19th Century. After heavy rains, an avalanche of mud and granite rained down upon the city on 12 October 1862; many were killed. In 1890, the Swiss-owned Hotel Equateur opened, a precursor to the deluge of tourist business that would one day come to define Seychelles.

Women stop for a chat in front of an image of Lieutenant Charles Routier de Romainville, founder of the city of Victoria (Credit: Hemis/Alamy Stock Photo)

Perhaps the oldest extant building in Victoria is now, appropriately, the National Museum of History. With its engaging mix of written information panels and wall-to-ceiling displays, it tells the story of earliest colonial times, the freeing of slaves and the resulting history of Creole culture. Many established histories of the city speak of Victoria's (and Seychelles') colonial history, understandably so as it was the French and the British who would leave behind the architectural landmarks. But on 1 February 1835, 6,521 slaves were set free on Seychelles. The entire population at the time was just 7,500; nearly 90% of these were freed slaves and they would become the foundation upon which a Creole nation was established.

Originally built in 1885, formerly the building of the Supreme Court of Seychelles, the museum was restored in 2018 and remains a light and airy structure of wooden shutters and soaring ceilings surrounded by a palm-filled garden. It occupies the corner of Independence Avenue and Francis Rachel Street.

In the heart of this intersection and visible from the museum grounds is one of Victoria's more curious monuments: a miniature replica of the clocktower known as Little Ben that stands on Vauxhall Bridge Road in London. It was brought to Victoria in 1903 and serves as a suitably diminutive signpost for a city that can never grow any bigger.

Shoppers queue at the Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke Market (Credit: economic images/Alamy Stock Photo)

Inside the closely packed streets and lanes that comprise Victoria's true centre, the "city" is a tight tangle of cars and people, horns and bright fabrics. Around the covered Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke Market, the city becomes a mix of shouting fishmongers and fresh produce that ranges from coconuts and plantains to vanilla pods and chillies. Along Albert Street, old-school wooden trading warehouses in fading pastels share street frontage with a glass-walled casino. Nearby, there's the extravagant balconied facade of the Domus (a residence for the church hierarchy, built in 1934). Over on Quincy Street, the Hindu Sri Navasakthi Vinyagar Temple rises amid the modern buildings.

Victorias Hindu Sri Navasakthi Vinyagar Temple rises from the city (Credit: mauritius images GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo)

"People think Seychelles is all about beaches," said Connie Patel, local trader, amateur historian and lifelong Victorian. "And, of course, the beaches are important. But everything from Seychelles is here. There aren't many roads here on Mah; nearly all of them pass through Victoria. If you want to see where ordinary Seychellois come to do business away from tourism, Victoria is where it happens. It's an essential part of the Seychelles story."

Resident Geetika Patel, agreed: "Victoria is a window on the real Seychelles. It can be loud and messy and we all complain about the traffic. But this is modern Seychelles. Look around you. It's a melting pot of faces and architecture that tells you a lot about who we are. Listen, and you'll hear everyone talking in Creole. You can't say you understand Seychelles unless you've been here."

Up the hill, above the city and off Revolution Avenue, Marie-Antoinette Restaurant occupies an old home where, in the 1870s, Welsh-American journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley stayed for a month on his way back from Africa and his celebrated encounter with Dr David Livingstone. Stanley had been sent by a US newspaper to find Livingstone, who had lost contact with the outside world years earlier; it was at their first meeting on this trip that Stanley uttered the now-famous words, "Dr Livingstone, I presume?". Upon his arrival in Seychelles on his way home, Stanley missed a French postal ship by a day and was marooned in Seychelles for a month while he waited for passage back to Europe. Built entirely of wood, sporting towers and turrets, the building is yet another signpost to a little-known past.

George Camille, one of Victorias best-known artists, wants to turn Victoria into a capital of Creole culture (Credit: Anthony Ham)

Just down the hill, artist Camille, who dreams of turning Victoria into a regional capital of Creole culture, has restored a traditional home built of casuarina, mahogany and other hardwoods, turning it into an exhibition space and art gallery known as Kaz Zanana for his confronting artworks. "This is what the houses of Victoria once looked like," said Camille. "It's a relic of a disappearing world."

It was dusk as I left Kaz Zanana and wandered down into the city centre. Lost in thought, I found myself outside the market. The day's heat had gone, as had the market traders. There was no traffic. The streets had fallen silent. In that moment, Victoria felt, perhaps, like the village it once was, and never really outgrew.

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One of the world's smallest capital cities - BBC.com

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) is likely to get land property in Victoria, the capital of Seychelles, if the proposal received to this effect materialises.

Business Network Cabinet (BNC) group Vice-President and TTD board member S. Shankar recently met a group of business leaders and NRIs at Chennai along with Tirupati MP M. Gurumoorthy, seeking their support for the development of Tirupati and TTD.

Ramakrishna Pillai, an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) settled at Seychelles, reportedly agreed to donate his four acres of land worth 5 crore in Victoria city to the TTD for building a temple for Sri Venkateswara.

At a meeting held in Tirupati on Sunday, TTD Additional Executive Officer A.V. Dharma Reddy appreciated Mr. Pillai for his generous offer and promised to get back after taking the boards approval as well as referring to the land procurement policies in Seychelles. This is the first land donation proposal coming to us from abroad, he said.

More here:

TTD likely to get land in Seychelles - The Hindu

Thoothukudi MP and DMK leader Kanimozhi has assured a delegation from the International Fishermen Development Trust (INFIDET) that she will take efforts for the release of five captains and their boats detained in Seychelles.

According to P. Justin Antony, president of INFIDET, a voluntary service team based in Kanniyakumari met Ms. Kanimozhi in Chennai on Saturday and submitted a memorandum. The MP promised to take up the issue with officials concerned in New Delhi and help in securing the release of the captains and their five boats.

As many as 61 fishermen and five boatswere detained betSeychelle authorities ween March 7 and 9. INFIDET had sent representations to the Central and State governments and to the Indian Embassy in Seychelles, whose timely efforts resulted in the release of 56 fishermen, except the five captains of the vessels, without any penaltyon March 22 . The next hearing of their case was scheduled for April 19, Mr. Antony added.

Originally posted here:

Fishermen team meets Kanimozhi for release of five captains from Seychelles - The Hindu

In Tulip Trading Ltd (TTL) v Bitcoin Association for BSV, the High Court determined that TTL had not established a serious issue to be tried on the merits of its claim. Further, it held that, as a result, the order from the lower court granting permission to serve a claim form out of the jurisdiction and service of the claim form were to be set aside.

The High Court also assessed the lex situs (location) of crypto assets when a corporate entity is concerned.

The Claim

TTL, a Seychelles company, alleged that it had suffered a hack that caused the loss of a significant amount of digital currency assets. As a result of the hack, private keys and information that would allow access to the keys were removed from the computer systems of Dr Wright (who asserts that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, who developed bitcoin). These private keys would allow dealings in the crypto assets.

TTL claimed $4.5 billion from 16 developers, alleging that they owed fiduciary and common law duties under English law. Furthermore, it was argued that the developers should be required to write and apply a patch to the blockchain network in order that it could be transferred to a new Bitcoin address for the benefit of the claimant.

The defendants in this action were the core developers and/or otherwise control the software in respect of four relevant digital asset networks, namely:

None of the defendants are in the jurisdiction.

TTL claimed that the defendants owed TTL fiduciary and/or tortious duties, effectively meaning that they should assist TTL in regaining control and use of its assets. Specifically, TTL requested:

In relation to point 2 above, TTL indicated that it would not be technically difficult for the defendant to write and implement the software patch enabling TTL to regain control of the assets.

There was also a question as to the location of the assets and TTL. TTL claimed that the assets were in the jurisdiction, namely England. But the defendants argued that the assets were in the jurisdiction that the company was domiciled in, namely the Seychelles.

Judgement

The court determined that there was no good or arguable case that open source Bitcoin developers (the defendants), whose code is widely adopted and used, do not owe fiduciary duties or a common law duty of care to those who use that code to trade or store their crypto assets.

Furthermore, the court also considered that there was sufficient information to amount to a good arguable case that (a) TTL is resident in the jurisdiction; and (b) that the property is located here.

The court determined the lex situs (location) of the bitcoin held by corporate entities, with Mrs Justice Falk stating that a company is resident where its central management and control is located, that being where its real business is carried on.

Please see link to the full judgementhttps://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2022/667.html

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Cryptocurrency and Jurisdiction - Lexology