patriciawatt

At Port Victoria in Mahé, in the SEYCHELLES, one of the first things I saw was a fishing trawler docked just behind us hauling tons and tons of fish out of its belly that were then loaded into a refrigerated container, one of many standing by, and other fishing ships ready to unload the same. I know there are people/countries fishing our oceans, but I just never thought about the huge amounts of fish they are taking. And that was just one or two ships that I could see! It made me sad. I have heard on this trip on the west side of Africa where the Chinese, after building them a school, were given fishing rights to an area off I believe, Senegal, where they actually took so many fish that it created problems for the local fishermen who could no longer sustain a living fishing because there were so few fish now.

From Port Victoria we spent the day on a catamaran with snorkelling and beach time. The next day we were anchored in La Digue in the Seychelles where we had another wonderful day of snorkelling and beach time. The Seychelles of the 70s was a place to be seen and playground for film stars and the international jet set. In the late 70s and the 80s there were a number of coups that took place and ‘over dependence’ on tourism was discouraged.

Today the tourism industry and fish processsing lead the economy here. During the Gulf War and also during Covid, the government realized they should not be relying so much on tourism and encouraged again the agricultural sector which had declined. Today sweet potatoes, vanilla, coconuts and cinnamon are the prime agricultural products.

The Seychelles is an island nation located in the Somali Sea segment of the Indian Ocean. The country consists of over 155 islands. The Seychelles culture is a mix of French, British and African with more recent immigration of Chinese and Indian. It was uninhabited in the 18th century and became a British colony in 1814 and remained so until its independence in 1976. What followed were a number of coups or attempted coups until finally in 1993 a new constitution was passed and a multi-party system was introduced. French and English are he main languages along with Seychellois Creole.