![]() The colonial dynamic still affects them foreign powers are polluting and pillaging the region with no consequences to themselves.” They’re the most impacted by threats of pollution, while doing the least to pollute themselves. It’s only since independence in 1976 that it became a UNESCO site, and there are competing pressures to develop the economy as well as to protect the island. “Under colonial rule, Aldabra was exploited. ![]() Its people are intrinsically linked to marine ecosystems,” says April. “Seychelles is a developing state with 115 islands. It’s what happens to these little-known tech devices after the catch that outrages environment-watchers worldwide.Įnter conservation biologist April Burt of the University of Oxford, who co-leads the Aldabra Clean Up project and researches the impact of marine pollution, particularly FADs, in the Seychelles. The plastic waste is mainly from industrial fishing with hundreds of tonnes of nets, ropes and lost or discarded hi-tech Fishing Aggregate Devices (FADs), which end up wedged in mangroves, tangled in coral reefs and washed up on beaches. Local data collection in Seychelles quantifies pollution by amount and type, as well as where it’s found. The converging ocean currents, which give the island its fabulous flora and fauna, also bring an inescapable tide of marine plastic pollution, which washes up on the shoreline in dirty waves. ![]() Unhappily, it’s also become famous for being covered in trash, with one of the highest densities of accumulated marine plastic litter worldwide. Sandwiched between two major current systems in the southwest Indian ocean, it’s a UNESCO World Heritage site, famous for its near-pristine ecosystems and bountiful high densities of seabirds, fish, sharks and turtles. The remote Aldabra Atoll is an idyllic tropical paradise in the Seychelles archipelago. The remote Aldabra Atoll is a haven for wildlife that’s rapidly disappearing under a tide of plastic pollution from industrial fishing.Ĭan solutions be found before paradise is lost? ![]()
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