(Seychelles News Agency: 22 March 2016) - Seychelles is now better able to safeguard its waters with the installation of a coastal surveillance radar system officially inaugurated on Monday, the minister of foreign affairs said. The project has been implemented with the support of the Indian government.

TODAY in Seychelles, 9th Marth 2016: The Minister for Finance and the Blue Economy believes the decision to settle country’s debt with the Paris Club means more money to promote sustainability and protect the environment

Its official, our oceans are experiencing a coral bleaching event on a global scale. Since October 2015, scientists of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been reporting high ocean temperatures across Hawaii and the Caribbean, causing widespread coral bleaching. The phenomenon has now reached the Western Indian Ocean, which has been on coral bleaching alert since the 4th of January this year.

This morning at 830 am our International Volunteers working on Cousin Island Special Reserve performed the excavation of the nest 519 which was laid just one day before the new year. On Saturday night we encountered adorable baby turtles just close to the volunteers' house, which were a bit confused by the house’s light. Today during the excavation all the eggs that were pre-counted have been found together with a wonderful surviving hatchling. 

On 16th April 2016, Nature Seychelles will partner with SYAH-Seychelles (SIDS Youth AIMS Hub) in a beach clean-up on Cousin Island Special Reserve as part of the Marine Debris Challenge, an initiative of Australian based organisation, Positive Change for Marine Life Association.

Shark encounters during a dive are always exciting because as well as being majestic and mysterious, they are indicators of a healthy marine ecosystem.

A Nature Seychelles’ study focusing on the link between coral reefs and fish populations at several sites around Cousin Island Special Reserve has recently been published in the scientific journal Ocean & Coastal Management.

Professor Jane Lubchenco, the first ever US Oceans Envoy and Ambassador Sharon Villarosa together with 3 members of their staff, paid a visit to Nature Seychelles’ Reef Rescuers Project and Cousin Island Special Reserve last week. The delegation was accompanied by Dr. Nirmal Jivan Shah, Nature Seychelles CEO and travelled from Mahe to Praslin where they met with Nature Seychelles’ Reef Rescuers team then to Cousin Island Special Reserve for an island tour.

The Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Energy, Mr. Didier Dogley officially launched the Nature Seychelles’ Coral Reef Restoration Training Program last week by symbolically cutting a ribbon on the Amitie beach on Praslin Island. Mr. Dogley, in the presence of Dr Nirmal Shah, the CEO of Nature Seychelles, other Nature Seychelles staff and the media waved the trainees off on their boat as they went for their first dive under the training program.

Dr. Nirmal Jivan Shah, Chief Executive of Nature Seychelles said these words at the end of President’s James Michel’s State Visit to India last week. Shah was part of the President’s delegation in the whirlwind tour to New Delhi and Mumbai as the country’s Special Envoy for Environment and Climate Change. “Seychelles and India have a common front yard- the Indian Ocean. So it’s a no-brainer that we should seek more than just good neighborly ties with this scientifically advanced and economically dynamic nation,” he stated.