Seabird monitoring and policing on Recif Island special reserve |07 September 2015

Recif Island, a 13-hectare granitic island situated 34 kilometres east of Port Victoria, was declared in 2010 as a Special Nature Reserve under the National Parks and Nature Conservancy Act by the Minister responsible for Environment. Signing of the declaration paper was done in the presence of the President and as part of a national commitment to increase the total land surface area of Seychelles under legal protection to 50%. 

The island hosts important populations of seabirds such as Sooty tern, Lesser and Brown Noddy, Bridled tern, White tern, Tropic bird, Wedged-tailed and Audubon’s shearwaters.

Sooty tern forms, undoubtedly, the largest colony of seabirds recorded nesting on the island. Prior to stationing of personnel from the environment department, the island was used by fishermen where their presence was associated with poaching of seabirds and their eggs. This was back then during the early 2000 when the island was viewed as deserted.

Since the year 2005, the environment department took an interest in the island’s seabird species and decided to deploy its rangers for annual monitoring.

The 2005 deployment was however not without incidences. Fishermen were still killing seabirds and poaching their eggs. It was decided that presence of military will assist to deter poachers.  With this additional presence, personnel from the department were able to camp overnight for longer periods of time, in fact staying on the island for the duration of the nesting season ensuring that the seabirds and their eggs were provided with maximum protection.

Significant conservation achievements have been made since then. For example, during a 2002 expedition to the island, only 47,940 pairs of Sooty terns, 1420 pairs of Bridled terns and very few pairs of Lesser Noddies were recorded. During a 2011 population census, significant increases in the seabird populations were recorded. There were around 75,000 pairs of Sooty tern, 1852 pairs of bridled tern and 3492 pairs of Lesser Noddies.

Mature woodland was observed to be an important element in the provision of suitable nesting sites for the island’s seabird population. However, an introduced species of rabbit –which was released on the island for food and now roaming wild -- was having detrimental effect on the island’s vegetation. The massive negative impacts of introduced mammals on breeding seabirds is well known and widely reported. As a result mitigating measures continues to be of major concern and importance. Rabbits have been introduced as an exotic species into a number of environments, with baleful results to vegetation and local wildlife. They have a diverse diet of grasses, leaves, buds, tree bark and roots.  These animals have been found to have both direct and indirect effect on seabirds, whereby they disrupt seabirds breeding activities while indirectly causing alteration to the existing habitat.

An attempt to eradicate rabbits from Recif Island began in early April 2012. The justification for this programme is evidence that rabbits are directly and indirectly impacting negatively on the island’s fauna and flora. Thus their eradication forms part of the island’s ecological restoration.

There were concerns that the decline in vegetation will also result in mass desertion of tree nesting seabird species. We therefore proposed to rehabilitate the island’s plateau area to increase and sustain a long-term vegetation structure suitable for providing nesting sites and materials to the seabird populations. The intentions were to plant as many seedlings as possible on the plateau area where soil composition and dept would allow growth and maintenance of woodlands. Plants were chosen according to their ability to withstand high level of salinity and those that grow well in coastal sand. The department planted over 200 plants during 2012 with funding from the Environment Trust Fund under the government of Seychelles.

Significant achievement have been made since then with recorded increase in the island’s seabird populations as a result of reduction of damage to vegetation by rabbits and this has been brought about by availability of more nesting habitats. The plants are now matured and are being used by Lesser Noddies for nesting. During the 2014 Lesser Noddy census, more than 250 nests were recorded within the new established woodland. The total population size has also increased significantly to nearly 6000 nesting pairs with an increase of nearly 2500 pairs since the island became protected. Fishermen are no longer poaching seabirds and their eggs as a result of constant presence of personnel and the latest count on Sooty tern revealed a population size of nearly 100,000 pairs. A total of 3710 nests of Brown Noddies were recorded and this represents an increase of nearly 2716 nests from the 994 nests that were recorded in 2007.

The white tern has also increased to nearly 300 nesting pairs from only 10 individuals recorded in 2002 while the Bridled tern has increased from 1420 pairs in 2002 to nearly 3085 pairs in 2014. The Roseate tern is another very interesting seabird that nests only on Aride Island in the granitic. Few pairs have been observed around Recif Island and we wait with anticipation when they will start nesting.

As one personnel recalls her experience on Recif during the tree planting exercise:

“I found the island spectacular! Just imagine, no hotel, no bathroom, no bed, just birds, lizards, Veloutye trees and lots of rocks. Yes no bathroom. But that did not matter, because the experience was truly worth it.

Most women might find it hard to stay on such an island, but I found it to be a good experience.  The island is quite small so it’s easy to take a walk around it. But a word of advice, please wear proper shoes. Along with our planting, I went fishing and to my surprise I actually caught something.  I’ve actually overcome my fear of lizards. The big skink called ‘teng-teng’ in Creole are all over the island, so I figured, its better we just forget our differences and be friends!”

Contributed