A Crown-of-Thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) The crown-of-thorns (Acanthaster planci), is a large, thorned starfish which lives along the shallow reefs of the tropical band of the globe. It has all the fundamental components of any other starfish - a central disk, perimeter by radiating arms - but unlike most, this starfish can have up to 23, regenerative arms (all of which can be replaced in the case of lost limbs) covered with long poisonous spines. Usually found ranging between 25 cm – 35 cm in its adult stage, some individuals can be as large as 80 cm. The crown-of-thorns is a ..read more

The 26th September was the celebration of MCSS' 20 years of work from whale sharks, sea turtles, beach erosion, marine mammals, wetlands and terrapins to coral reefs ! David and the five current project leaders (Inga Petelski, Savinien Leblond, Alessia Bacchi, Vanessa Didon and Chloé Pozas-Schacre)  gave a talk remembering all the various projects undertaken by the NGO since and presenting the on-going work. This anniversary was celebrated at Le Méridien Fisherman's cove as this special day was also the opening of the first ex-situ coral nurseries in Seychelles.  David go ..read more

Jack, Lucie, Nick and Lonne, our four new interns Recently, the project has welcomed four interns from different corners of Europe who have been doing a great job so far, especially with the construction of the two coral growing tanks ( which are going to be ready soon ....) Here they are!  Lonne, Aishah and Carolyn working on one of the two coral growing tanks Hello, my name is Lonne! I am 19 years old and am interning with MCSS for 20 weeks as apart of my University’s course content. I study in The Netherlands in a University of Applied Science called Avans ..read more

The Fisherman's Cove  project has been ruled by a girl team lately, meet Carolyn and Lois our two new volunteers !  Frankie, the Hawksbill turtle  Hello, my name is Carolyn and I am ecologist who has been stuck on the land for too long. I have travelled from wet and windy Scotland to the tropical shores of the Seychelles to complete my Divemaster training, volunteer with marine conservation projects and, most importantly, spend some time in the oceans again! I recently completed ten weeks with Dive Seychelles Underwater Centre to do my Divemaster internship. The hi ..read more

It’s been a busy month here at the Fisherman's cove! We have welcomed five new volunteers from all different parts of the world. Each of us had his own nationality: Seychellois, British, Italian, American, Russian, Portuguese and French. Our everyday activities include maintaining the snorkeling trail for the hotel guests and taking them out on excursions, as well as cleaning our coral nurseries and monitoring the fragments condition, which has taught our volunteers some valuable new skills. We’ve also been training them by taking them out on the reef to spot different coral and fish ge ..read more

This is it! All four of our coral nurseries are finally in the water! It took us less than a month to build the nurseries and place them in the water, it was a mission but we did it.  Aishah swimming with cement block attach to a buoy Leo and Chloe setting a nursery underwater The happy happy happy team after the work done! The nurseries hold mainly branching Acropora coral fragments but also some Porites and Pavona for a total of 128 fragments. The nurseries need intense cleaning to ensure the health and growth of the coral fragments. The design of the nurser ..read more

Deep-sea corals Dear faithful (or new) reader, Relax and seat comfortably, it’s time to chill for a while. Imagine one minute, you are in a nice lagoon, you just finished to drink your fresh coconut cocktail and you decide to go for a swim in the warm water. The sun is hot, you can hear the tropical birds from the island singing in the jungle far away. You have your mask, your snorkel and you start to nicely swim until you get to the reef. You calmly put your head underwater and the magic happens. Structure of incredible architecture and complexity appear, with colour you never suspecte ..read more

This photo has nothing to do with the topic but it attracts your curiosity “Niark Niark” (evil laugh). Hello curious reader, Hope you are doing good and ready to dive again in the incredible world of corals. Last time we spoke about polyps and zooxanthellae, remember? If not check rapidly the 1st story about corals! Don’t be lazy, it’s worth it! We are far to understand all the mysteries that hide corals and we’ll probably never know them, like every nature forms. However, let’s try to discuss about the things we know for the moment. We’ve seen that corals are true builders. But ..read more

Hey, Aishah in the snorkeling kiosk My name is Aishah Fanchette, I’m 19 years old from Seychelles and I work on Le Méridien Fisherman’s Cove project. I’m not new in the MCSS team, I worked one month at the Banyan Tree in 2015 with the turtle and terrapin project and worked two months on Cerf Island in 2016 with the CICP (Cerf Island Conservation Project) while I was still in school doing my work base attachments. Now that I have finished school at the Seychelles Maritime Academy and obtained my Advance Certificate in Fisheries Science, MCSS was my first door to knock up. It was ..read more

Bonzour everyone, My name is Léopold and I’m the new intern in the Coral nurseries project at Le Méridien Fisherman’s Cove. I’m 22 years old and I’m doing my internship with the Marine Conservation Society in Seychelles (MCSS) for my master of “Marine Biodiversity and Conservation”. I first worked on the terrapins trapping in the South of Mahé and I joined the coral project last week. I have to say that it’s really nice to be in Seychelles and to participate in this project. I used to be a scientific mediator in the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco during the Summer period. I remembered th ..read more