MORE REASONS TO VISIT THE ALDABRA ATOLL
(Posted 05th April 2015)
When expeditions from the Seychelles’main island of Mahe to the distant Aldabra Atoll recently resumed, those few who were on the inaugural trip were in for a treat, finding marine life galore during their visit. Aldabra, managed by the Seychelles Island Foundation together with the second UNESCO World Heritage Site on the archipelago, the Valle de Mai on the island of Praslin, is globally considered as one of the most pristine marine reserves. Over 150.000 giant tortoises are found on and around Aldabra, a multiple compared to the numbers of the better known Galapagos islands and other rare species too can, with a bit of luck, be encountered by the few visitors who can afford both the time required to reach the atoll by boat as well as the cost involved.
But those who do now may even have the opportunity to spot the rare ‘Dugong’ or sea cow, which has of late been seen by the research team based on the Aldabra, making a return from near extinction.
Information received from a regular source on Mahe, well acquainted with marine life and marine protection measures in place across the archipelago, commented that when the islands were ‘discovered’ by European seafarers, the dugong was a common sight on the shores and off shore of many of the 115 islands which form the Seychelles archipelago. Then hunted to near extinction the sea cow was left with few places of suitable habitat but it appears that the distant Aldabra atoll provided them with a place of refuge and relative safety. Feeding on seaweed, which appears to be in rich supply in and around Aldabra, will numbers hopefully grow in the future so that visitors can add one more tick of the marine life, bird life and insects found when they come from their yachts or cruisers and are allowed on the atoll for the day.
For more information visit the website of the Seychelles Island Foundation, which incidentally appears to have a YouTube video available of a close up view of a dugong – at www.sif.sc or else click on www.aldabra.org
