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Praslin
Secondary School's 'Friendly beast'. Photo D.
Rowat |
SUBIOS is
the annual Seychelles Underwater Festival which aims to
educate the people and especially the youth of Seychelles
about the marine life in their surrounding waters, as well
as attract visitors to the islands to participate in the
activities. This year at the 17th SUBIOS festival a
carnival parade of floats was organised allowing schools
from all over Seychelles to compete in creating an
imaginative float depicting their views of Seychelles
marine life, with a stunning Rs25000 ($5000) first prize
donated from the President’s Children’s Fund.
Competition was keen and in his closing speech at the
festival the Minister of Environment, Mr. Ronny Jumeau
remarked at how many of the floats had incorporated the
conservation of sharks into their theme. The Minister also
noted with pride that Seychelles efforts on the
conservation of whale sharks, in conjunction with the
MCSS, had led to the country being asked to organise the
first negotiating meeting on the legal agreement to
conserve migratory sharks under the UN Convention on
Migratory Species. He also announced that the Ministry of
Environment had “approved the Seychelles Whale Shark
Encounter Policy…This will control the way swimmers,
divers and boats approach these huge but docile creatures
so as to disturb them as little as possible”. The
Minister continued that the “ministry shall now
consider introducing legislation to ensure the encounter
policy is effectively implemented”. This is another
major step forward in the conservation of the species
locally and will help the sustainable development of whale
shark eco-tourism activities in Seychelles.
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The
whale shark proceeds down Independence Avenue.
Photo D. Rowat |
The prize for the best float was awarded to the
Independent School; the magnificent model whale shark,
from Praslin Secondary, was, however, not in the top three
but still worthy of tribute! All the children that
participated in the event were rewarded for their efforts
with consolation prizes of Rs1000 for those floats that
did not make the money spinning top three.
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