Cleaning up Aldabra |19 March 2018

With the change in wind and current direction during the north-west monsoon, Aldabra’s northern and western coasts receive a huge amount of marine litter. Since the start of the year, the team has been conducting regular beach clean-ups on Settlement beach, the main beach in front of the research station on Picard. During January alone the team collected almost half a tonne of beach debris!

It is to be noted that the team has already written about the marine debris issue and gave an overview of how it has been affecting Aldabra Atoll. They also introduced the new marine debris project which aims to conduct research and raise awareness on the impacts of marine waste on Aldabra’s wildlife. The project has officially kicked off and was brought to the attention of President Danny Faure during his recent visit to the atoll.

Daily clean-ups are undertaken in the morning during the turtle track monitoring and more intense collection events are carried out by the whole Aldabra team, mostly on Saturday mornings.

Overall, during the month of January a total of 424.5kg of beach debris has been collected. Some of the debris being removed is fish aggregating devices (FADs) washed ashore or drifting close to the atoll. FADs are man-made objects used to attract pelagic fish such as tuna. Constructed using a variety of materials including fish nets, plastic sheets and synthetic ropes, free-floating FADs have a huge impact on marine life.

Removing FADs is strenuous and requires good coordination; it took the team over an hour to remove a long-line drifting FAD near Malabar Island! The team will continue to collect marine waste on accessible beaches throughout the year. With the marine debris project, SIF plans to tackle the far away beaches of Grand Terre that are less visited, and therefore not actively cleaned by staff, where marine litter has been accumulating for decades. A video has been produced to raise awareness on the marine debris threat to Aldabra’s biodiversity and can be viewed on the following link https://vimeo.com/245532236