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With “Wise Oceans”, marine biologist Amrita Pai wants to win tourists over to protecting the oceans.
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Win Schumacher
The island of Moyenne in the Seychelles lies in the middle of one of the oldest marine protected areas in the world. And conveniently not far from the main island of Mahé.
If Moyenne’s giants could talk, what would they say? The world was a different place when the oldest turtle on the island hatched from its egg. When you look into the eyes of the perhaps 100-year-old giant, framed by deep wrinkles – a rock of an animal – you would like to know what stories he drags through the undergrowth of his island with his shell, which weighs around 200 kilos. kilograms.
Something in the sea seems to have piqued the giant’s interest. Could they be terns, whose white plumage continually lights up as they perform their aerial ballet over Sainte Anne Reef? Perhaps the aging specimen, looking out to sea in Sainte-Anne National Marine Park and being cuddled by a child, is reflecting on the moment it was transported to Moyenne. Perhaps the giant tortoise also remembers the sunburned Englishman and his local companion in faded swimming shorts?
But not pirate treasure, right?
Writer and editor Brendon Grimshaw bought Moyenne in 1962 for £8,000. The island, largely deforested, was then covered in bushes. Grimshaw wanted to search for pirate treasures on the island, which the legendary French pirate La Buse was said to have hidden here. The modern Robinson found the right Friday with local René Antoine Lafortune. The two planted thousands of trees on their island and founded a giant tortoise colony that today has more than 120 animals. Numerous birds returned to the island without human intervention.