In 2019, the Islands Development Company (IDC), responsible for the management of 13 outer islands / atolls of Seychelles conceived the first large-scale beach cleanup of these islands, and invited TOP to co-lead the Seychelles Outer Islands Cleanup (OICUP), which took place between 18 and 31 March 2019.
OBJECTIVES
To conduct beach litter assessments of the abundance, composition and potential origin of marine litter stranded on 14 outer islands and to provide recommendations for effective waste and marine litter management of the outer islands. Since 2016, TOP has organised community beach cleanups along Seychelles’ coastlines to investigate the abundance and composition of marine litter and identify plastic hotspots. Until the OICUP, TOP’s cleanups were restricted to the inner islands.
OUTER ISLANDS
The outer islands are divided into 5 groups: Amirantes Group, Southern Coral Group, Alphonse Group Farquhar Group and Aldabra Group. The OICUP targeted 14 islands spread across all 5 groups, namely:
- Remire
- Desroches
- Poivre (Poivre Atoll)
- Ile du Sud (Poivre Atoll)
- Platte
- Coetivy
- Alphonse (Alphonse Atoll)
- One Palm Island (St Joseph Atoll)
- East Knoll Island (St Joseph Atoll)
- Farquhar North Island (Farquhar Atoll)
- Farquhar South Island (Farquhar Atoll)
- Manahas (Farquhar Atoll)
- Ile aux Goëlettes (Farquhar Atoll)
- Astove (Astove Atoll)
SUMMARY FINDINGS
A total of 10,433kg of litter was collected across 12 islands. A general trend was observed. The islands/atolls further south from the Equator and more exposed to the South Equatorial Current appeared to hold more litter than those closer to the Equator. The influence of human development on the islands/atolls also appeared to influence the presence of marine litter e.g. litter density on Alphonse and St Francois (further south) were less than on Coetivy most likely owing to coastline maintenance and regular beach cleanups by organisations on the islands. The most common material collected was plastic and FADs (by weight).