Having worked with two types of sea turtles, during multiple turtle nesting seasons in 2 different countries I am still sometimes surprised by how different and exciting each day can be when you are around these animals. One of the best things about the Hawksbill turtles that nest in Seychelles is the fact that they come up during the day; a very rare phenomenon among turtles.

Although Nature Seychelles' underwater coral nursery in the Marine Park by Felicité Island is located close to the shore,  bad weather and rough sea conditions can make a shore dive impossible. During rainy days, our Reef Rescuers depend on the boat to complete tasks related to the nursery cleaning, monitoring of the donor site and survey of potential transplantation site.

This is my third time on Cousin Island during turtle season. You would think that after spending so much time watching turtles nesting I will have seen most of what there is to see but no, every time I come, there is always something new, something I haven’t witnessed before.

Seychelles Nation; 2nd February 2018: The Seychelles and the European Union (EU) have signed and formalised the Agreed Records of the EU-Seychelles Joint meeting. The two-day meeting was conducted on January 31st and February 1st wherein representatives from the European Commission and those from the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) met to discuss the agreement which allows access for EU vessels in our waters and EU support to the local fishing sector. 

This is my first time to Cousin Island as a helper during the hectic turtle season. Although I had no idea what I was walking into, the hawksbill turtles have most definitely exceeded my expectations. During my first month here I had two turtles come on to the beach at the same time time to lay their eggs. They both made their way up the beach into the vegetation near the path. The bigger of the two started digging immediately and without hesitation started laying quite quickly.

TODAY Newspaper; 24 January 2017 by Christine Marimba: It was during a symposium held at the Natural History Museum during the Sea Turtle Festival that some people suggested that eating the meat of sea turtles was cultural and the ban on killing the creatures should be lifted. Alarming news from Madagascar recently should perhaps give us pause.

Seychelles News Agency; 18 January 2018, by Betymie Bonnelame: New measures have been put in place to ensure that Seychelles-flagged purse seiner vessels don't surpass their allocated limit of 2,555 metric tonnes of yellowfin tuna.

TODAY Newspaper; 16 December 2017: by Kate Carolus. The first report on the state of coral reefs of all countries of the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) is out. It was officially presented on Saturday 9 December in Nairobi, Kenya, during the ICRI General Assembly of the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI). The purpose of the publication is to provide updated information on the state of coral reefs in the region, including impacts of one of the largest coral bleaching events in 2016.

Seychelles News Agency; December 27, 2017 by: Betymie Bonnelame

New measures will be put in place this year to regulate the collection of three types of commercial sea cucumber species in the waters of Seychelles.

NATION 10 November 2017; Fenella Plows: Well-known local environmentalist, Dr. Nirmal Jivan Shah, Chief Executive of Nature Seychelles, participated in the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association’s (WIOMSA) 10th Symposium, where he made several presentations between the 30th October to the 4th November 2017 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. One of the presentations was on behalf of the Seychelles Conservation Climate Change Adaptation Trust (SeyCCAT) on funding innovations, a second on coral reef restoration in the Western Indian Ocean region and a third on Blue Solutions and the IUCN Green List. He also facilitated a Special Session on coral reefs and chaired two keynote presentations.