Seychelles Breweries recently joined the Marine Conservation Society Seychelles (MCSS) turtle team for various sea turtle conservation activities.
The activities took place at Anse Bazarca, the beach that Seychelles Breweries, under its Slow Turtle cider brand, has sponsored and pledged support during the current hawksbill turtle nesting season.
The day kicked off with an al fresco presentation by MCSS’ project leader, Vanessa Didon, who provided information on the sea turtle conservation work that MCSS undertakes on Mahé’s most important turtle nesting beaches, as well as the basics of turtle monitoring.
The Seychelles Breweries team was shown how to identify turtle tracks on the beach and how to distinguish each species’ track by their different gaits, hawksbill creating an asymmetrical track due to their alternating gait and greens a symmetrical track due to the fact that they move up the beach with both pairs of flippers simultaneously.
With their crash course in the basics of turtle monitoring, the MCSS team led the Seychelles Breweries team, consisting of three members of staff and the company’s managing director, on a turtle patrol. Turtle tracks were identified, their widths measured and the relevant data recorded. Though none of the turtle emergences recorded on the day had resulted in any new nests, the locations of existing egg clutches at Anse Bazarca were pointed out and a follow-up activity once the hatchlings have emerged will take place.
The group also planted several Scaevola taccada or ‘vouloutye’ cuttings that have been growing in MCSS’ coastal plant nursery as part of rehabilitation efforts against the severe erosion and degradation of the beach fringe vegetation. This plant species is particularly beneficial to turtle nesting activity due to the type of shade it provides, as well as its root system.
The MCSS team has encountered one new individual hawksbill turtle on Anse Bazarca so far this nesting season, which the Seychelles Breweries team has sponsored and named ‘Slow Turtle 1’.
Source: Seychelles Nation
