Dynamite fishing, coral mining, and farm runoff take a toll

To help save the reefs of the Seychelles, get active with these groups:

Aquaria Water Museum

GEOMAR, University of Kiel

IUCN Eastern Africa Regional Technical Office

REEFWATCH

Ryan Foundation International

Keep Your Shirt On: Reefwatch scientific officer Simon Pittman waits for dive volunteers to return from a reef survey in the Seychelles. Photo: Reefwatch

Corals in the Seychelles grow mostly in small fringing reefs, but a few atolls have magnificent reef formations; one of them, Aldabra, is a U.N.-designated World Heritage Site. Sediment from farm runoff is smothering reefs here, and shell collectors have stripped beaches of many species of corals. Conservationists take note: Forbes magazine ran a 1997 story with the almost impossibly gauche headline "So Buy Yourself an Island," describing how any average Joe with $20 million lying around could buzz down to the Seychelles and buy Daros, an isolated 1,100-acre coral-atoll island group, from Iran's ex-rulers the Pahlavi family—complete with airstrip.