Understanding the life of Seychelles’ sharks at national scale

Nico’s research has spatially expanded to several new sites in 2023 and 2024 and now includes more than 22 islands in 7 island groups and covers over 500 km across Seychelles Inner and Outer Islands. He has returned with comprehensive datasets that include movement and diet data from 97 acoustically tagged sharks, 6000 m2 of mapped reef habitat using 3D photogrammetry, and more than 600 hours of benthic and pelagic BRUVS footage. Some highlights from his preliminary findings include shark movements ranging as far as 120 km between D’Arros Island and the African Banks Island Group, and the identification of a grey reef shark nursery site at Alphonse Island.

His data collection goes hand in hand with the local knowledge of the research teams on-site and he closely collaborates with the Save Our Seas Foundation D’Arros Research Centre, GVI Seychelles, Nature Seychelles, the Island Conservation Society Seychelles and the Marine Conservation Society Seychelles. This research marks the first-time shark assemblage and behaviour are investigated in the St. Anne Marine Park, the Cousin Island Special Reserve and in the remote Alphonse Island Group.

Nico and the SOSF-DRC team were the first to deploy midwater BRUVS in Seychelles with their deployments in the Amirantes Islands Group in 2023. Over 220 h of footage has been collected since. MFL masters student Rachel will analyse the videos and synthesize the findings which will allow a first insight into the pelagic species assemblage of Seychelles Outer Islands.