ISLAND CONSERVATION-A passion for fish |27 October 2008
Not many people know that nearly two centuries ago fishes and other marine life from Seychellois waters were being collected and studied by European naturalists.
It was the French master mariner and merchant-shipowner Jean-Jacques Dussumier (1792-1883), from Bordeaux, who first drew attention to the wealth of life on and around our coral reefs. During a number of stopovers here on his way to and from the Far East between 1826 and 1830 on board the Buffon he collected not only specimens of fish but sea cucumbers, octopus and seashells as well. These he sent to the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, where the fish were eagerly dissected and studied by zoologists Georges Cuvier and Achille Valenciennes as they wrote their monumental Histoire naturelle des poissons – twenty-two volumes altogether, describing over 4,000 species of fish from all over the world, including 2,311 that were deemed new to science.
Of these, several were from among Dussumier’s Seychellois specimens. They include the yellowfin surgeonfish (a species of sirizyen), club-nosed trevally (karang), bludger trevally (karang balo), green jobfish (zob), Indian snapper (madras), bridled spinecheek (vivano, ivano or zanno), slender grouper (sevaldibwa) and brownspotted grouper (vyey makonde). Such fish are found all over a large portion of the Indian and west Pacific oceans and we tend to take them for granted - it seems quite amazing that they were unknown until Dussumier collected them here.
Observations
Dussumier’s notebooks make fascinating reading for a number of reasons. First there is the precision of his observations, as in his description of the flight of flying fish (pwason volan) – exocets in French:
Le vol de ces poissons est assez soutenu lorsque la mer est un peu grosse, et qu’ils peuvent mouiller leurs ailes dans les lames qui se brisent au-dessous d’eux… En calme, ils ne s’élèvent jamais, et alors ils deviennent une proie facile pour les poissons et les dauphins qui les poursuivent… Les paille-en-queue et les fous les poursuivent et les saisissent en plongeant; je n’ai jamais vu un oiseau les prendre hors de l’eau…
Then, there are the interesting historical details woven into Dussumier’s accounts, as when he describes whaling in Seychelles (in a note dated November 12th 1827):
Je me suis procuré aux Séchelles quelques dents de cachalots, qui sont très nombreux dans ce parage. Un baleinier anglais dont la pêche n’avait été heureuse dans le Canal de Mozambique en fit la découverte, il y a trois ans, et il obtint dans peu de temps le chargement d’un navire de plus de 300 tonneaux. Depuis lors, il y a chaque année trois ou quatre bâtiments de cette nation dont les cargaisons sont complétées dans trois ou quatre mois. Cette découverte a valu au capitaine qui l’a faite non seulement une fortune qui a été assurée par un troisième voyage, mais (aussi) une distinction de son gouvernement…
Then, for anyone interested in languages, there is the pleasant surprise of seeing in Dussumier’s notebooks that most of the current Creole names of fishes were already in use back then in the 1820s – remember, this was just before French Commandant Jean-Baptiste Quéau de Quinssy’s death and nearly a decade before the abolition of slavery in 1835. Of course, since the modern Creole orthography dates from 1978, Dussumier spells the names à la française. They include pampre (the silver pompano or panp), prêtre (silverside or pret), bourse armée (porcupine fish or bours arme), gibeleau (one-spot snapper and John’s snapper or ziblo), vieille ananas (leopard hind and tomato grouper or vyey zannannan)…
Homage
In his writings, zoologist Georges Cuvier paid homage on numerous occasions to Dussumier’s valuable contributions to science, referring to “le zèle éclairé et désintéressé d'un particulier qui, depuis plus de dix ans, n'a cessé de consacrer
à des récoltes d'histoire naturelle ses loisirs et une partie de sa fortune”. Not surprisingly, close to a hundred species of fish have been named after Dussumier. One of them here in Seychelles is Hyporhamphus dussumieri or Dussumier’s halfbeak, a kind of zegwir.
Now you know why the Latin epithet dussumieri is also part of the scientific name of the Seychelles sunbird or kolibri and one of the scientific names of the Aldabra giant tortoise or tortidter. A fitting tribute to the French négociant-armateur and voyageur-naturaliste who put Seychelles on the natural history map: 182 years ago, long before SUBIOS, he was doing his utmost to publicise the wealth of biodiversity in Seychelles‘ waters.
The Island Conservation Society promotes the conservation and restoration of island ecosystems.
by Pat Matyot