Seychelles Tourism Board Press Release

The latest Press Release issued by the Seychelles Tourism Board

Marine Safety Press Release Update

The shark Experts, Mr. Geremy Cliff and Mr. Michael Anderson-Reade, from the Kwazulu- Natal Sharks Board arrived in Seychelles yesterday morning on the Air Seychelles Flight from South Africa. In the afternoon they met with senior government representatives from the Seychelles Maritime Safety Administration, Environment Department, Praslin Development Fund and the Police to discuss their work programme over the next 6 days.

According to their Terms of Reference they will assist the Government of Seychelles with the following:

Comprehensive prevention and safety measures:
Determine and propose a comprehensive list of prevention and safety measures that the authorities need to apply, the geographical extent and the length of time these will be required to lower the possibility of a shark attack. These should include advisories to swimmers and divers, surveillance systems and rescue respond measures and first aid accessibility.

Elimination of the potential danger:

Identification of the shark species and size from the information available and determine what may have triggered or cause the attacks. What methods can be utilized to abate or remove the particular shark threat?

Other contributing factors:

Identify and list other biological and anthropogenic contributing factors that may need to be considered such as disposal of food sighting. This is being supported by patrol boats from Seychelles National Parks, local fishermen and the Coast Guard.

The government of Seychelles wishes to reiterate that it is against putting a bounty on sharks and the indiscriminate killing of sharks. It wishes to reaffirm the fact that it will apply internationally accepted best practices to address the problem based on advice from the shark experts.

In the meantime all fishermen who catch a shark are being asked to report to Mr. Rodney Quatre, the Research manager of the National Parks Authority who is collecting data on sharks. His phone number is 2726104.

For media Information please contact Mr. Jean Toussaint on 2722352

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