Seychelles have specialized in high -end tourism, which alone represents 30% of its economy. Several hotels have teamed up with restoration projects for coral reefs. No more days spent sipping cocktails on a deckchair: tourists can now help cutting corals.
Organization of conservation, restoration and education in the marine world, Wiseoceans offers various fun and educational activities to wealthy customers of partner hotels.
Like most tropical regions of the world, the Seychellois coral reefs are seriously affected by episodes of massive whitening, more and more frequent, due in majority to warming of the oceans. The phenomenon occurs when the zooxanthelle, the microalgue with which the coral lives in symbiosis and which gives it its color, disappears.
Since 1998, the date of the first and the worst whitening episode, scientists estimate that more than 80% of corals have disappeared in certain regions of the archipelago.
“Because of the increase in sea temperature, coral stresses, removes the algae from its fabrics because it will produce too many toxic products for it. The coral is then white. The animal is not yet dead, it is still alive, but has no food,” explains Fantine Soulat, during a workshop with two couples of French tourists. This marine biologist works for Wiseoceans by being based year -round in a five -star hotel in Baie Lazare, on the island of Mahé.
If the stress of the bleached coral decreases, it can recover and resume its colors. This is all the challenge of workshops for tourists organized by Wiseoceans: reintroducing it in a protected environment, a nursery in the lagoon, making it grow, then transplant it on a reef, nine months later.
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Attractive activities
The customers who participate in the workshops is delighted. Seychellois hotels have perceived it. According to Oliver Kuhn, director of Kempinski Seychelles Resort where Fantine Soulat works, this “eco-luxe” positioning responds to a request: “Nowadays, our customers are looking for more experiences. This is fantastic, because they can learn, practice and see things on the same site,” he said. “With us, customers sometimes stay up to three or four weeks. We must have a lot of activities to entertain them: coral restoration, coral adoption program, guided tour and snorkel on the coral barrier,” he develops.
These initiatives mixing tourism and awareness meets an increasing echo in the archipelago. But if these actions have the merit of being talked about, they are unfortunately only a “dressing”, admits Fantine Soulat, and cannot, by them, slow down the massive decline of reefs.
>> To consult also:
Radio report: Sarah Tetaud
Adaptation web: Antoine Michel
