Our Precious Coasts

Figure 11. Recolonization of corals following bleaching along the coasts of Mahé island, Seychelles. With increasing development, silt, land reclamation and sewage cover corals with sand and algae, slowing down recolonization substantially. The Baie Ternay and Port Launay sites were hit badly by the bleaching events, but have been rapidly recolonized by soft and leather corals, as well as Porites sp. Correspondingly, the sites near heavy development have shown little or no recovery in the same period, suggesting that their ability to recover is much less (Source: Wilkinson, 2002, Global unit SO survey data with Nature Seychelles).

Figure 12. The impacts of coastal development and clearing of coastal vegetation in the beach crest on costal vegetation diversity within 5-25 m of the beach. Development often results in the clear- ing of coastal vegetation, which then again may increase run-off into rivers, creeks and into the ocean directly during heavy rains or as a direct result of coastal erosion. Most important, however, is likely marine pollution originating from land based sources. (Data from Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, Seychelles 2002-2006).

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