Author: Andrew Baird

Andrew, Tom and Charlotte recently returned from a sampling trip to the Seychelles hunting topotypes and attempting to sample as many different species as possible over 10 days on D’Arros Island followed by a week on Praslin and Mahe.

The Seychelles is an important destination for Project Phoenix’s revision of the taxonomy of the Scleractinia because it is the type location for 30 nominal species, including some putatively widespread and common species, such as Dipsastraea matthaii (Vaughan, 1918) and Goniastrea retiformis (Lamarck 1816) (Figure 1). Eighteen of these nominal species are considered junior synonyms and two are of uncertain taxonomic status, so there is much work to be done revising the Seychelles coral fauna.

We were particularly fortunate to visit the research centre run by the Save Our Seas Foundation on D’Arros. Indeed, this is only the 2^nd time that corals have been collected on the island: the last occasion was the visit of the HMS Alert in 1881!

The reefs in the Seychelles were in pretty good condition considering the general status of reefs worldwide. We saw some coral bleaching and mortality with the reefs still passing through the tail of the 2023-2024 global bleaching event. We also noticed a small Acanthaster sp. outbreak – the first ever recorded on the island. 

In total we collected 418 samples from approximately 250 morpho-species. Incredibly, we found candidate specimens for all but a few of the 30 topotypes we were chasing. At least a dozen of these morpho-species are likely to be new to science (Figure 2).

We plan to sequence most of the Acropora specimens for a revision of the Western Indian Ocean Acropora led by Charlotte Dale, a PhD student at James Cook University. Unfortunately, sequencing the remaining specimens is dependent on securing more funding.

Beyond the corals we saw some wonderful country and met some great people. Spotting some of the many endemic birds was a highlight including the Magpie Robin on Cousin and the Seychelles Swallow on a hike into Mare aux Cochons on Mahe.

Acknowledgements

We thank the Save Our Seas Foundation D’Arros Research Centre and its team (Robert Bullock, Henriette Grimmel, Dillys Pouponeau, Ellie Moulinie, Emily Souffe) for a wonderful 10 days collecting on D’Arros, and Romy Rose, Damien Alphonse and Shawn Vidot for an excellent evening of good food, music and dominos at Seaside.

On Praslin, we thank Matt for two spectacular days at sea and Vicky and Lize for excellent company once the days work was done. 

On Mahe, we thank Stuart and Fiona for the use of their beautiful home and driving us, and Global Visions International for an excellent afternoon dive on their house reef.