ISLAND CONSERVATION - Marie Louise
31.08.2009
Marie Louise
Desnoeufs has its spectacular sooty tern colony. Boudeuse has the second largest masked booby colony in Seychelles and African Banks is a haven for nesting terns of several species. But for sheer variety nowhere in the Amirantes beats Marie Louise.
This is the “Aride” of the archipelago. It is a pity it is so difficult to reach and even then, landing by sea can be a big problem. Yet this is the strength of Marie Louise too. Isolation has been its saviour for there are no rats or cats unlike so many of our small islands where bird numbers have been devastated by introduced predators.
I was lucky enough to get there recently thanks to a spare seat being available on a rare flight from Mahe. As the plane lands at the short airstrip, the air appears to be filled with flocks of lesser noddy (kordonnyen or kelek) and fairy tern (golan blan). The engine is cut and its dull monotonous sound is replaced by the varied calls of thousands of seabirds. Once all the islands must have looked and sounded like this. They belonged to the birds, not to humans. Nowhere better illustrates just what could be achieved in the outer islands if we turn the clock back and eradicate introduced pests.
Walking around the island, I found flocks of cattle egret (Madanm Paton), brown noddy (makwa) and the burrows of wedge-tailed shearwaters (fouke). I was particularly surprised to find coconut palms dripping with large numbers of red-footed booby (fou bet). On my only previous visit to Marie Louise in 1995 I had seen none whatsoever. “There must be at least 300 of them,” I said to Garry Ernesta, the manager. “No far more”, he replied “way more than 1,000.”
I was fascinated. This begged the question, did they now nest here, too? Garry claimed they did and assigned one of the staff to take me to see the nests. He was right. According to the books including my own, red-footed booby breed today only on Aldabra, Cosmoledo and Farquhar. Next time I do an update, I will have to add Marie Louise to the list! But I cannot take credit for this discovery which was common knowledge for the islanders. Also, back on Mahé, I learned that Roland Nolin had found boobies breeding in small numbers in 1997 but sadly, his report was lost. If there were none in 1995, they must have arrived around the time of Roland’s visit and numbers have since steadily built up. They probably also bred here long ago too but were taken for food. In a more benign age, they have now returned perhaps for the first time in a century or more.
The wonders of Marie Louise are not confined to the birds. The beaches are also stunning. Some writers say that Anse Lazio is the best beach in the world and others say it is Anse Source d’Argent. But if these writers were to travel to the outer islands they would see the most dazzling white coral sand beaches lapped by turquoise seas, where good numbers of turtles still nest and the bountiful sea provides sustenance for thousands of seabirds.
The IDC staff on the island maintain the airstrip and act as the link to Desnoeufs but there is no other economic activity since the death of the copra industry. The island is small and little agriculture is viable.
Harsh economic realities mean that one day, it will probably be necessary to look at how to make Marie Louise sustainable. That way must surely involve some form of ecotourism to help preserve what is without doubt one of the most beautiful islands of Seychelles.
by Adrian Skerrett
The Island Conservation Society promotes the conservation and restoration of island ecosystems.