Marine Conservation Expedition in the Seychelles

‘If only every student could do this. It changes your life in all the right ways,’ says Chris Heritage, parent of Luke Heritage, one of our teen volunteers who has participated on two GVI programs, one in Costa Rica and another in South Africa.

We are a parent-run organisation that is incredibly serious about health and safety, and increasing the impact, as well as the long-term career benefits of our programs. Our programs help young people develop the skills to select a career path that is personally fulfilling, and live a life aligned to the well-being of our planet and the global community.

GVI is a proud member of the Gap Year Association.

Ken and Linda Jeffrey, whose son Sam volunteered with GVI in Thailand, talk about how the experience affected Sam. He also went on to volunteer with GVI again in South Africa. ‘I know it sounds like a cliche but in a sense, he did go away as a boy and he came back as a young man. Both of us could recommend GVI without any hesitation to any other parent thinking about exploring an opportunity for their children to explore the world and to see different parts of it.’

All of our programs have short-, mid- and long-term objectives that align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). This enables us to report on our collaborative impact across the world in a streamlined manner, measuring which UN SDGs we are making a substantial contribution to. Furthermore, this will help our local partners and communities measure and visualise their contribution to the UN SDGs.

Prior to your arrival on base, you will be educated about the UN SDGs. Then once you arrive on base, you’ll learn about the specific goals we have in this particular location, our various objectives, and also clarification of how your personal, shorter-term involvement contributes to these.

Our aim is to educate you on local and global issues, so that you continue to be an active global citizen after your program, helping to fulfil our mission of building a global network of people united by their passion to make a difference.

Healthy corals are key to the health of our planet. They help fish populations regenerate themselves, provide shelter for juvenile fish, assist in removing excess carbon dioxide from our atmosphere, and protect living spaces near the shore from damage by waves and storms.

In 1998, a massive coral bleaching event decimated many coral reefs, where up to 90% of coral reefs were lost around the globe, including the reefs surrounding the inner granitic islands of the Seychelles. Algae is the main food source for corals and helps to maintain their structure. Coral bleaching occurs when rising water temperatures cause the algae that live on corals to detach themselves from their hosts. Warm waters are the result of climate change caused by excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

In addition to the high seasonal sea temperatures, the coral reefs around the Seychelles face numerous other threats, such as population pressure, poaching, and unsustainable tourism, all of which are challenging to quantify without a solid, scientific basis. In order to effectively manage and conserve the reef, a continuous monitoring program is necessary to build up a comprehensive picture of the ecological health of the reef.

Efforts to monitor the recovery of reefs in the Seychelles were initiated after the 1998 event. This began with a three-year project, named the Shoals of Capricorn, which extensively monitored the entire inner islands. The Seychelles Centre for Marine Research & Technology  (SCMRT) was set up at this time to continue the work and to aid the Seychelles National Parks and Gardens Authority (SGPA), with the management of the marine parks. After the Shoals of Capricorn project, the monitoring was taken over by Reef Care International.

This program has a significant impact on local and national marine conservation laws and regulations, including the utilisation of GVI collected data to help establish and set catchment limits each year for key fisheries species.

Corals and Fish Surveys

We established our project in the Seychelles in 2004 with the aim of aiding our primary partner SGPA. At over 20 sites across the North-West coast of Mahe, GVI staff and participants use the protocols of Reef Care International in order to survey the reefs. These surveys include noting the health of existing coral, evidence of new young coral growing on the reef, the presence, abundance and diversity of fish and invertebrate species, and select species sizes. Data on coral recovery as well as fish abundance and diversity is passed on to the SPGA to assist with their management and legislative decisions, which might include updates to policies, expanding currently protected areas, or protecting additional areas from overfishing. For example, sea cucumbers are profitable, so we monitor them to assist our partners in making informed science-based decisions. In addition, we use a different citizen science coral monitoring technique to provide data to CoralWatch, a worldwide coral monitoring methodology based at Queensland University, Australia, which aims to monitor coral bleaching and recovery events around the globe.

Sharing our long-term monitoring data to SPGA allows them to better track and monitor  changing reef dynamics and the potential recovery of coral species and coral reef associated species. This partnership provides invaluable data which is then used to petition for science backed policy changes to better protect the reefs and marine life in the Seychelles. 

Commercial Marine Species Surveys

Unsustainable fishing is also a threat to the health of the Seychellois marine life. This  affects the well-being of the local community (many of whom rely on fish for daily subsistence), and the growth of the local economy (seafood from the Seychelles is exported and sold to international visitors to the islands). Its underwater treasures are another reason why many people visit every year, bringing capital into the country. We assist the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA), through our partnership with SPGA, with monitoring commonly harvested species like octopus, lobster, and sea cucumber populations.

Marine Megafauna Sightings

Incidental sightings of marine megafauna like reef sharks and sea turtles occur frequently during dives, and this information is noted and passed on to the Ocean Biogeographic Information System or OBIS Seamap, an online database designed to keep track of various large marine species around the world. 

Marine Plastic Pollution Cleanups

Beach cleans and ocean floor cleanup dives are also regularly conducted as part of the Dive Against Debris (DAD) initiative. For DAD, we dive to pick up marine fishing gear and ghost nets (these account for more than 50% of all marine trash) as well as discarded plastics and general waste. The data about types and amounts of marine plastics collected is sent to Project AWARE, an organisation established to monitor the abundance and diversity of marine debris around the world. 

Environmental Education

Environmental education is also an important part of our GVI Mahe program. The main aim of this program is to get members of the local community involved in discussions around issues affecting their marine environment. A new program called the LEAP Project (Locally Empowered Area Protection) has been established with our partners Nature Seychelles and aims to enhance coastal and marine socio-ecological resilience and biodiversity conservation in the Western Indian Ocean. With a much higher level of community engagement and involvement with local groups, such as schools and other environmentally focused local NGOs.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals

All of our programs have short-, mid- and long-term objectives that align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals or UN SDGs. We want to be able to measure our collaborative impact across the world in a streamlined manner, so all our staff and volunteers know which UN SDGs they’re making a substantial contribution to. This also helps our local partners and communities measure and visualise their contribution to the UN SDGs.

Prior to your arrival on base, you’ll be educated about the history of the UN SDGs. Then, once on base you’ll learn about the specific goals of your location, the long-, mid- and short-term objectives, and also insight into how your personal, shorter-term involvement contributes to these goals on a global level.

Our aim is to educate you on local and global issues, so that you continue to act as active global citizens after your program, helping to fulfil our mission of building a global network of people united by their passion to make a difference.

The main United Nations Sustainable Development Goals we strive to support at GVI Mahe are Goal 14: Life Below Water, Goal 15: Life on Land and Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals.

Below is a list of core ethics and best practices we believe are essential to the operation of high quality, ethical volunteer and sustainable development programs. We believe that all responsible volunteer and sustainable development operations should focus upon these principles. If you are considering volunteering, these are some of the key considerations you should question, to ensure that your time and money contributes towards positive change.

We want to constantly develop our own understanding of ethical best practice. In so doing, we aim to provide an exemplary industry standard for other education institutions, international development organisations, and social enterprises. Our Badge of Ethics stands for the drive to always do good, better. Find out more, click on the Badge below.