Western Indian Ocean

The Arabian Sea Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus arabica Khalaf, 2021): A New Subspecies from the Arabian Sea and Western Indian Ocean.

By: Sharif Prof.Dr.Sc. Norman Ali Bassam Ali Taher Mohammad Ahmad Ahmad Mostafa Abdallah Mohammad Khalaf-Prinz Sakerfalke von Jaffa.

Abstract: There are four distinct subspecies of blue whales living in the Indian Ocean: the Antarctic Blue Whale Balaenoptera musculus intermedia Burmeister, 1871 of the Antarctic Zone and Southern Ocean, the Pygmy Blue Whale Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda Ichihara, 1966 found in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean, the Northern Indian Ocean Blue Whale Balaenoptera musculus indica Blyth, 1859, found in the Northern Indian Ocean (Khalaf, May 2020), and the newly discovered unnamed subspecies Balaenoptera musculus un-named subsp., from the Arabian Sea and the Western Indian Ocean which was recognized as a new population with a previously unreported song-type. The novel song-type was recorded off Oman in the Arabian Sea/northern Indian Ocean, off the western Chagos Archipelago in the equatorial central Indian Ocean, and off Madagascar in the southwestern Indian Ocean (Cerchio et al., 2020). Blue whale subspecies are characterized each with a diagnostic song-type. The newly discovered population was scientifically named as a subspecies based on its novel song-type. It was given the name Balaenoptera musculus arabica Khalaf, 2021.

Reference: Khalaf-Prinz Sakerfalke von Jaffa, Prof. Dr. Sc. Norman Ali Bassam Ali Taher Mohammad Ahmad Ahmad Mostafa Abdallah Mohammad (January 2021). The Arabian Sea Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus arabica Khalaf, 2021): A New Subspecies from the Arabian Sea and Western Indian Ocean. Gazelle: The Palestinian Biological Bulletin. ISSN 0178 – 6288. Volume 39, Number 193, 01 January 2021, pp. 17-46. Published by Prof. Dr. Norman Ali Khalaf Department for Environmental Research and Media, National Research Center, University of Palestine, Gaza, State of Palestine. https://cetacea-5.webs.com/arabian-sea-blue-whale & https://issuu.com/dr-norman-ali-khalaf/docs/arabian_sea_blue_whale

Pearls, People, and Power is the first book to examine the trade, distribution, production, and consumption of pearls and mother-of-pearl in the global Indian Ocean over more than five centuries. While scholars have long recognized the importance of pearling to the social, cultural, and economic practices of both coastal and inland areas, the overwhelming majority have confined themselves to highly localized or at best regional studies of the pearl trade. By contrast, this book stresses how pearling and the exchange in pearl shell were interconnected processes that brought the ports, islands, and coasts into close relation with one another, creating dense networks of connectivity that were not necessarily circumscribed by local, regional, or indeed national frames.

Essays from a variety of disciplines address the role of slaves and indentured workers in maritime labor arrangements, systems of bondage and transoceanic migration, the impact of European imperialism on regional and local communities, commodity flows and networks of exchange, and patterns of marine resource exploitation between the Industrial Revolution and Great Depression. By encompassing the geographical, cultural, and thematic diversity of Indian Ocean pearling, Pearls, People, and Power deepens our appreciation of the underlying historical dynamics of the many worlds of the Indian Ocean.

The early history of nautical technology in the western Indian Ocean and adjoining parts of the African coast is poorly understood. In the absence of evidence from shipwrecks, it has hitherto been based largely on the uncertain interpretation of a few documentary references and speculation surrounding technological parallels and assumed lexical resemblances. This paper examines some of the linguistic evidence in a more rigorous way, by undertaking a cross-dialectal comparison of names for watercraft and terms for outriggers in Swahili (Kiswahili), a Bantu language spoken on the islands and in scattered communities along the western seaboard of the Indian Ocean. The resulting analysis provides a new outline of the development of Swahili nautical technology and maritime culture, highlighting the key role played by particular boat forms, and the relative importance of indigenous innovation and different external influences, including the elusive impacts of Austronesian seafaring.

In the capitals and think tanks around the world much debate has taken place on the importance of the Indo-Pacific as a new regional framework. Increasingly, the Indo-Pacific is treated as a fact, not as a geopolitical regional construct. Discussions focus on how to engage with the new region and design strategies. The 2021 AUKUS agreement is a good example of the shifts in thinking that the Indo-Pacific implies. Attention is turned to mini-lateral agreements and traditional military thought. Strategies issued by the UK, France or the EU have a similar emphasis. What does Indo-Pacific thinking imply for small island states such as the Seychelles? On the surface, agreements such as AUKUS and the new regional construction of the Indo-Pacific do not matter much for small island concerns. Yet, as I show in this contribution Seychelles and other small island states in the region need to pay close attention to the developments that Indo-Pacific discourses imply and need to start strategizing how they find their voice in the debate.

How do concepts emerge and change? This chapter investigates the concept of the 'blue economy'. The concept was originally proposed as an alternative to the 'green economy' and as a way of thinking innovation and sustainability. Over the years it has evolved into a concept that is primarily about the economic potential of the sea. The developing blue economy agenda aims at providing new direction for ocean governance, maritime trade, ocean resource exploration and ocean health. Increasingly it is also linked to concerns over maritime security. The chapter investigates the twist and turns that the concept of blue economy has been taking. It draws on a practice theoretical framework that argues that we should appreciate the way in which concepts are responses to concrete problematic situations. A range of such problematic situations are investigated. The chapter offers both, a rich empirical case from one of the least studied areas of global governance, as well as a new way of thinking about conceptual change in practice. Concepts are one of the basic linguistic material of international politics. Yet, the study of concepts is often reduced to a concern of historians of international thought. This misunderstanding is gradually corrected, 1 the awareness is growing that concepts are also a productive entry point for understanding contemporary international politics and how it changes. This new recognition is linked to the re-evaluation of linguistic structures as part of the introduction of discourse-theoretical and post-structuralist thoughts to the discipline of international relations (IR). These textualist perspectives have well advanced our understanding of why and how language matters in international politics. They, however, tend to focus on larger systems of meaning and do not scrutinize single concepts, their evolution, and career. In this chapter, I argue for basing the study of concepts on a practice theoretical perspective. 2 I draw on a contemporary and recently emerged concept: the Blue Economy. The concept of Blue Economy emerged over the last decade as a new way of thinking about and governing the oceans. I use the case of this concept to develop three interrelated claims for practice-based concept analysis: Firstly, following the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein and John Dewey I suggest that the meaning of a concept lies in its use. Concepts have no inherent meaning outside of their use. For Wittgenstein concepts are part of what he called " language games ". For Dewey, making a similar argument decades earlier, concepts had to be seen as part of " conjunct activities " of a community of functional language use. Rather than " language games " or " conjunct activities " I suggest the more established term of " practice " , to refer to the sets of activities within which concepts are used. In consequence, the study of concepts implies to study the practices of which concepts are part, the collectives that carry and enact the practice and the situations they are part (practical configurations).

A monitoring programme was established in order
to support community-based seaweed farming in south-west
Madagascar by providing scientific information on the effects
of physico-chemical and health factors influencing the growth
of Kappaphycus alvarezii (cottonii). Six aquaculture site configurations
were studied. These consisted of high and low
flow locations, off-bottom and long-line farming techniques
and different benthic/substrate types. At each site, a number of
growth and health variables were monitored monthly between
January 2012 and March 2013 on 30 randomly selected thalli.
Variables included thallus-level growth, intensity of epiphyte
and disease infection, intensity of fish and sea urchin grazing
and cover of pest seaweed and sediment. The following key
environmental variables were also monitored at the site level:
water temperature, irradiance, salinity, water depth, wave
action, pH and oxygen content. Overall average relative
growth rate of K. alvarezii in the region was 4.5±0.06 %
day−1 and varied by site and season. Generally, growth rate
was higher during the winter season (April–August, 5.04±
0.31 % day−1) than in the summer (3.90±0.28 % day−1). The
long-line farming technique provided higher growth (5.46±
0.09 % day−1) than the off-bottom technique (3.99±0.07 %
day−1). Thallus-level analysis showed that fish grazing, epiphyte
cover, sediment cover and disease had significant negative
correlations with growth, and the four variables were
positively correlated. Site-level analysis on the effects of
physico-chemical and health factors showed that sedimentation,
daily maximum of water temperature and variability, and
interactions between these factors were the main determinants
of growth. Growth was lower at high sedimentation levels and
higher values of maximum temperature and temperature variation.
Our findings highlight that farming should focus mainly
in the cold season and long-line technique in order to limit
the major ecological constraints encountered and maintain
growth and production at sustainable levels.

This essay explores concepts of space and relation at the turn of the twentieth century. Specifically, I concentrate on globalism in Zanzibari public discourse and the cognitive maps of individual perception. I focus closely on the voluminous writings of the first Zanzibari, indeed the first Arab woman, to publish her memoirs: Emily Ruete, born Sayyida Salme bint Said, a  daughter of the sultan of Zanzibar. Ruete’s autobiography, Memoiren einer arabischen Prinzessin (Memoirs of an Arabian princess; 1886), narrates a series of seeming contradictions. Ruete eloped with a German merchant and converted to Christianity, but she became a fierce defender of Islam; she was an East African woman of Omani, Persian, and Georgian descent who assimilated into bourgeois German society but found cultural solace only in Beirut. Her writings, which also include a great many letters and a treatise on Syria, are among the most detailed reflections on cosmopolitanism and global interconnectivity composed by a Zanzibari. Ruete’s body of work thus provides a unique window on self-definition, the imagination of supranational space, and the constitution of a worldview in the Age of Steam and Print.

MA Thesis in Maritime History (Faculty of Letters, Lisbon University FLUL, 2014) - revised version

The present thesis Shipwrecks of the “Carreira da Índia” (1595-1623) – Sources
for the Study in Portuguese Maritime History deals with factors which caused losses of
ships of the Carreira da Índia which linked the European metropolis Lisbon with its
Goa based Estado da Índia between 1595 and 1623. Although Portuguese-Asiatic
shipping was formally separated from the Habsburg Empire during the Union of the
Two Iberian Crowns (1580-1640), the European policies of the Spanish Kings,
especially towards the United Provinces and the Netherlands had its influence and
effects on the Portuguese side.
Shipwrecks, either on the outward bound or homeward bound voyages had
occurred for various reasons since the early days of the Carreira da Índia yet the
emergence of the two private European Companies, the Dutch United East India
Company (founded in 1602) and the British East India Company (founded in 1600)
were a new momentum by which’s characteristics of concurrence and struggle for
supremacy of the European-Asiatic spice trade, losses of Portuguese ships were caused
by planned and executed military operations as well.
Focusing on the geographical region of the Mozambique Channel in which the
losses have taken place, the thesis combines a historiographical approach with records
of underwater archaeology analyzing questions related to the political environment and
planed military operations in which shipwrecks have occurred as well as causes of
shipwrecks observing ship building and design modifications and effects related to
economic patterns such as the monetary flows of the Portuguese outward bound
shipping during the period of observation.

Naufragios da Careira da Índia (1595-1623)

The networks of human relation that define the Indian Ocean region have undergone significant reconfiguration in the last half-century. More precisely, the economic insularity of the region has diminished while the postcolonial nation has both restricted movement and reoriented the political imaginations of people along the rim. At the same time, the Indian Ocean has been revivified as a unit of social exchange and analysis, particularly since the end of the Cold War. This article explores the meaning of Indian Ocean Africa in the context of a multipolar world by focusing on how the dictates of nations have transformed the region and how the petroleum economy as well as shifting means of social engagement have engendered new linkages. The essay argues that although the postcolonial era affected the closure of certain historical routes of connectivity, relationships structured by contemporary nations and air travel, among other things, have encouraged perceptions of regional coherence. What we might term 'basin consciousness' has begun to reverse the introverted politics of the early postcolonial era and animate the Indian Ocean as an idea.

Researchers have recently begun to re-examine the settlement of the islands of the Western Indian Ocean from multi-disciplinary perspectives that incorporate evidence from both the natural and human sciences (Blench, this volume; Hurles et al. 2005; Mitchell 2004, 2005). In this and other respects the study of the maritime heritage of the Indian Ocean lags behind that of the Pacifi c, where the history of human colonisation is the subject of lively interdisciplinary debate (cf. Hurles et al. 2003). One particularly fertile area of research has been the historical ecology of oceanic islands and analysis of the environmental impacts of human settlement and subsistence practices (Kirch and Hunt 1997). In the Western Indian Ocean Madagascar has been the focus of this kind of investigation (Goodman and Patterson 1997), but it has not been extended to other islands or integrated with study of their settlement histories. In this paper I will make a preliminary attempt to do so, by reviewing the cultural and biological evidence for people’s interactions with the terrestrial fauna of island archipelagos that lie between East Africa and Madagascar. I will argue that the significance of hunting, trapping and the translocation of wild animals has been greatly underestimated in previous histories of this region. The evidence presented here evokes a number of historical hypotheses, some contrary to received wisdom, about the settlement of the islands and relations between the communities involved. It also suggests some general correlations between island biogeography and human settlement that can be compared to observations based on research in Oceania.

Octopus fisheries are an important resource for coastal communities throughout much the WIO region. In many coastal zones with coral reefs, octopus fishing dominates small-scale fishing effort and is a particularly important economic activity for women as well as men. This report reviews the status of octopus fisheries in the Western Indian Ocean, as part of efforts to improve regional knowledge. It examines trends in catches, imports and exports of octopus at both the global and regional level, and explores the status, extent and structure of the fisheries in eight WIO states: Madagascar, Rodrigues, Comoros, Tanzania, Zanzibar, The Seychelles, Kenya and Mozambique.

Contemporary South Asian sociality is marked by signifiers of race, caste, ethnicity, and colorism. Examining the particular social inequalities and marginalization experienced by Africana people in these societies uncovers the dialectical interrelationship between caste, race, and colorism. This yields an understanding of how race and its more trenchant inflection, racism, function in South Asia. Interpreting implications for Africana politics in South Asian societies requires a theorization of these categories. Racialized casteism is an analytic that reveals the relationship between race, caste and colorism in South Asia, and highlights how Africana presence indisputably raises the significance of race thereby intensifying the outcomes faced by Siddis and Kaffirs.

While the Indian Ocean has served as a model of historical and archaeological connectivity for decades, in-depth studies of regional development across the ocean often do not incorporate trans-regional evidence and are informed by divergent theoretical perspectives. For the Persian/Arabian Gulf, this has resulted in a profusion of studies on economic and political development that do not focus on concurrent cultural and social change, ignoring how large-scale economic trends influence life ‘on the ground’. Limited trans-regional engagement also constrains the economic and political narratives, which sometimes contradict evidence known from other parts of the Indian Ocean. This dissertation tackles the narrative of economic growth and subsequent decline in the 9th-14th century Gulf and re-examines it first through analysing settlement distribution in the western Indian Ocean, and then through a comparison of material culture from two sites in the Gulf – Kūsh and Bilad al-Qadīm. In doing so, it aims to problematise our understanding of the medieval history of the Gulf and the western Indian Ocean, as well as to nuance the widely-assumed link between economic and social or cultural change.

We review the intrageneric systematics of day geckos, genus Phelsuma (Squamata: Sauria: Gekkonidae) in the light of a
recently published multigene phylogeny, and provide an overview of 19 selected chromatic, morphological and
behavioural characters for all currently recognized species and subspecies in the genus. To replace previous attempts of
dividing the genus into phenetic species assemblages, we propose the following monophyletic species groups and
summarize the morphological characters that partly support this grouping: Phelsuma barbouri group (P. barbouri, P.
pronki); P. dubia group (P. berghofi, P. dubia, P. flavigularis, P. hielscheri, P. malamakibo, P. modesta, P. nigristriata, P.
ravenala); P. mutabilis group (P. borai, P. breviceps, P. mutabilis); P. cepediana group (P. borbonica, P. cepediana, P.
guentheri, P. guimbeaui, P. inexpectata, P. ornata, P. rosagularis as well as the extinct species P. edwardnewtonii and P.
gigas); P. astriata group (P. astriata, P. sundbergi); P. madagascariensis group (P. abbotti, P. grandis, P. guttata, P. kochi,
P. madagascariensis, P. parkeri, P. seippi and probably P. masohoala); P. lineata group (P. antanosy, P. comorensis, P.
kely, P. lineata, P. pusilla, P. quadriocellata and probably P. hoeschi); P. laticauda group (P. laticauda, P. pasteuri, P.
robertmertensi, P. v-nigra); P. klemmeri group (P. klemmeri); P. andamanense group (P. andamanense) and P. standingi
group (P. standingi). Due to their equivocal placements based on different molecular markers, we refrain from assigning
P. serraticauda and P. vanheygeni to any of these species groups at this time. We complement the molecular data with
new trees based on partial sequences of the 16S rRNA gene for the P. madagascariensis- and P. lineata groups and
propose to elevate P. lineata dorsivittata and P. quadriocellata parva to full species rank as P. dorsivittata and P. parva.

The Indian Ocean has cast up a wealth of literature that merges fact and fiction, the most familiar to us being The Seven Voyages of Sindbad as passed down in the The Arabian Nights. Professor Claude Allibert, the dedicatee of this volume, has been our most engaging explorer of this quasihistorical world, and has led the way in seeking to disentangle the real and the fantastic, the literal and the symbolic, the imagined and the imaginary in travellers’ tales about the islands of the western Indian Ocean (e.g. 1991a; 1991b; 1992; 1993). He has also, of course, been one of our best guides to the chronicles of the islands, as well as their archaeology and history in general.

My modest aim in this paper is to turn a similar spotlight on the East African coast, to re-examine the little-known set of oral histories that includes those heard by Ingrams on Pemba. These traditions, most of them recorded from Swahili speakers between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries, describe the deeds of early immigrants from overseas called the Diba, Debuli, and variants thereof. Colonial administrators and scholars strove to interpret the traditions literally, and suggested various provenances for these mysterious visitors, who were reputed to have been builders in stone and the
source of various other cultural innovations, including (in some accounts) the mtepe sewn boat and a package of exotic crops.

In recent years, historians and anthropologists have paid relatively little attention to these traditions. This is in part a reflection of the prevailing view that oral accounts of this kind usually reveal more about contemporary politics than they do about the past. Moreover little new material relating to the Diba, Debuli and their cognates has been published since the 1950s, and very few researchers have pursued the subject. Here, I will analyse the traditions as both history and myth, arguing that although it may be possible to discern deep memories of the past in the names, places and deeds that they are woven around, it is difficult to extricate these from the accumulated layers of remembrance and the social and political influences that have shaped them.

[For further commentary on the subject of this paper see my post on 'The Maldives connection' at http://notesandrecords.blogspot.com/2011/02/maldives-connection.html (4 February 2011)]

In this wide-ranging history of the African diaspora and slavery in Arabia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Matthew S. Hopper examines the interconnected themes of enslavement, globalization, and empire and challenges previously held conventions regarding Middle Eastern slavery and British imperialism. Whereas conventional historiography regards the Indian Ocean slave trade as fundamentally different from its Atlantic counterpart, Hopper’s study argues that both systems were influenced by global economic forces. The author goes on to dispute the triumphalist antislavery narrative that attributes the end of the slave trade between East Africa and the Persian Gulf to the efforts of the British Royal Navy, arguing instead that Great Britain allowed the inhuman practice to continue because it was vital to the Gulf economy and therefore vital to British interests in the region.

Hopper’s book links the personal stories of enslaved Africans to the impersonal global commodity chains their labor enabled, demonstrating how the growing demand for workers created by a global demand for Persian Gulf products compelled the enslavement of these people and their transportation to eastern Arabia. His provocative and deeply researched history fills a salient gap in the literature on the African diaspora.

Accurate knowledge of maritime activities is vital for maritime security and the development of the blue economy. Although international donors have provided significant assistance, there are still no reliable regional maritime domain awareness structures in the Western Indian Ocean. This policy brief reviews current activities to identify opportunities through low-tech solutions, human resources and collaboration for improvement of maritime domain awareness in the region.

The term Indian Ocean States is applied to both coastal and landlocked states. In the connection total 51states are remained under discussion in the Indian Ocean strategies. Their issues and problems are diverse. These issues have made the India Ocean an area of conflict. The wealth and the resources of the Indian Oceans have significantly involved the extra regional actors in the ocean. The present study focuses that this involvement of extra regional actors and the competition between the regional powers has shaped the policies and designs of global political settings regarding Indian Ocean. The study concludes that, Politics and strategies are an ongoing phenomena but the reality is that Indian Ocean is having the name of the India but is not totally in Indian control and custody. In this world of power and competition things and patterns keep on changing hence the command of Oceans. The changing power pattern round the globe is affecting the politics of Indian Oceans.

Globally, seagrass ecosystems are considered major blue carbon sinks and thus indirect contributors to climate change mitigation. Quantitative estimates and multi-scale appraisals of sources that underlie long-term storage of sedimentary carbon are vital for understanding coastal carbon dynamics. Across a tropical–subtropical coastal continuum in the Western Indian Ocean, we estimated organic (Corg) and inorganic (Ccarb) carbon stocks in seagrass sediment. Quantified levels and variability of the two carbon stocks were evaluated with regard to the relative importance of environmental attributes in terms of plant–sediment properties and landscape configuration. The explored seagrass habitats encompassed low to moderate levels of sedimentary Corg (ranging from 0.20 to 1.44% on average depending on species- and site-specific variability) but higher than unvegetated areas (ranging from 0.09 to 0.33% depending on site-specific variability), suggesting that some of the seagrass areas (at tropical Zanzibar in particular) are potentially important as carbon sinks. The amount of sedimentary inorganic carbon as carbonate (Ccarb) clearly corresponded to Corg levels, and as carbonates may represent a carbon source, this could diminish the strength of seagrass sediments as carbon sinks in the region. Partial least squares modelling indicated that variations in sedimentary Corg and Ccarb stocks in seagrass habitats were primarily predicted by sediment density (indicating a negative relationship with the content of carbon stocks) and landscape configuration (indicating a positive effect of seagrass meadow area, relative to the area of other major coastal habitats, on carbon stocks), while seagrass structural complexity also contributed, though to a lesser extent, to model performance. The findings suggest that accurate carbon sink assessments require an understanding of plant–sediment processes as well as better knowledge of how sedimentary carbon dynamics are driven by cross-habitat links and sink–source relationships in a scale-dependent landscape context, which should be a priority for carbon sink conservation.

Vernacular sewn boats from southern Iran and Kerala, India, in the collection of Qatar Museums are documented and their construction described. The Iranian baggāras are unique preservations of sewn boats from the Arabian-Persian Gulf, notable for their previously undocumented keel-garboard sewing technique and extensive use of bitumen coatings. Comparison between individual boats enable conclusions to be drawn about the builders’ conception, as well as variation within the type. The Keralite kettuvallams represent an ongoing vernacular tradition that is nevertheless poorly documented or preserved in museum contexts. Construction drawings, naval lines drawings and 3D photogrammetry models are provided for all vessels.

"The State and Raw Commodities in Madagascar"

Chronic political instability defines the current crisis of Madagascar’s government. So does the expansion of contraband, particularly commodities – precious woods, minerals, and so forth. For example, in northern Madagascar rosewood seizures regularly feature in newspaper gossip columns. The uncontrolled export of such products, especially rosewood, sandalwood, ebony and palisander, creates a substantial gap in Malagasy national finances. Such exports also degrade the island’s ancient woodlands. Such exports may appear to be a new phenomenon, but they are not. This short article does not pretend to be exhaustive, but it does lay out some keys to better understanding the relationships between Malagasy governments and international traders.

With an impressively wide distribution, Gehyra mutilata is
present on almost all Indian and Pacific Ocean islands and in
large regions of Southeast Asia and Indonesia. Mitochondrial
sequence data (~500 bp) from individuals covering large parts of
its (mainly insular) distribution reveals deep cryptic variation
and strong geographic structure, with two well differentiated
lineages. Molecular data also reveals that the wide Indian and
Pacific insular distribution of Gehyra is very recent and, at least
across the Indian Ocean islands, most probably the result of human-
aided dispersal, as no variation within this lineage was
found. Further research is needed to determine geographic patterns
of variation across Southeast Asia, the level of genetic
variation, and possible mechanisms of speciation. If recognized
as distinct taxa, the binomen Gehyra insulensis should be resurrected,
and applied to the ‘Pacific lineage’.

Locally managed marine areas (LMMAs) are increasingly recognised as a key strategy for small-scale fisheries management across the Indo-Pacific. When effective, LMMAs can encourage responsible fishing, strengthen compliance and improve adaptive capacity, and may help to safeguard food security, address coastal poverty and increase resource sustainability. However, evidence that LMMAs can achieve long-term biological goals is limited. Here, we used a six-year dataset and a before-after-control-impact sampling design to assess the biological effectiveness of five community-managed no take zones (CMNTZs) situated within the Velondriake LMMA in southwest Madagascar. Linear mixed-effect models revealed that the difference in biomass between control and reserve sites increased over time. Significant differences in biomass between CMNTZs and controls were only evident from year two onwards, with 189% more total biomass in CMNTZs than fished control sites by year six. There was no effect of CMNTZs on the biomass of fish families preferentially targeted by the local fishery, limiting the long-term fisheries benefits of this reserve network unless individual CMNTZs are made larger to accommodate the home ranges of fishery targeted families. There were however, reserve effects preventing the decline of untargeted fish families and species richness. Importantly, these CMNTZs delivered a conservation benefit that rivals government-run NTZs in the region, against a backdrop of severe biomass depletion, coastal poverty and human dependence on fishing-illustrating their suitability as a solution to marine resource depletion in developing tropical countries.

The international community has awakened to the importance of the sea. Ocean health, ocean governance, maritime security and the blue economy are concepts that have received increasing attention over the past decade. However, caring for the oceans, fostering their economic prospects, and ensuring the security of the sea do not yet feature amongst the top priorities of most states. The Republic of Seychelles is one country that has been a crucial policy entrepreneur and advocate in raising the profile of the world's oceans. Rallying a coalition of small island states around a common cause, ensuring that coastal states recognise the importance of the sea, and taking on leadership roles, such as the chairmanship of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS), count amongst the notable achievements of the Indian Ocean nation. Now, former president James Alix Michel (2016) delivers a programmatic text on ocean governance that is likely to set the agenda for years to come. His core concept is that of the 'blue economy'.

Seagrass beds and mangroves are distributed in tropical regions all over the world and considered important nurseries for coral reef fish species. Studies in the Caribbean have shown that seagrass beds and mangroves are the most important nurseries for juvenile coral reef fish, and when juveniles become adults they move to the coral reefs. Coral reef fish in the Indo-Pacific region do not show such a consistent pattern. In this region it is not clear to what extent coral reef fish use available habitats in a non-reef – coral reef gradient and what the influence is of the presence of non-reef habitats as a nursery on coral reef fish populations on coral reefs. The present study was carried out on four islands along the coast of Tanzania and on one island in the Comoros archipelago in the western Indian Ocean. Using a point count visual census method during the day, the length, abundance and distribution of 76 commercially important coral reef fish species were studied. In total, 2279 quadrats were surveyed at six different non-reef habitats, on coral reefs adjacent to seagrass beds and mangroves (reef sg-mg), on coral reefs at a greater distance to seagrass beds and mangroves (reef far) and on coral reefs in the Comoros archipelago completely lacking seagrass beds and mangroves (reef Comoros). Results showed that shallow seagrass beds did harbour much higher juvenile fish densities than mangroves, deep seagrass beds, intertidal flats, algal beds and coral reefs. This suggests that shallow seagrass beds are the most important nurseries for juvenile coral reef fish. Furthermore, all 76 observed species were categorised in six species groups: sg residents, sg-reef transients, generalists, reef generalists, reef residents and rare species, based on their juvenile and adult distribution patterns between non-reef and reef habitats. Two species groups, sg-reef transients and reef generalists, showed possible migrations between non-reef and reef habitats, but only sg-reef transients, consisted of two species, showed a possible ontogenetic migration from seagrass beds towards the coral reef adjacent to non-reef habitats. This suggests that the nursery hypothesis affected only two species and all other species can use alternative habitats. On reef Comoros the six species groups were also present, but the number of species found on reef Comoros was much lower than on reef far. On reef far three species groups and on reef Comoros four species groups showed significant higher adult densities on reef sg-mg than on reef far or reef Comoros. This suggests that on the scale of an entire island, non-reef habitats have an impact on species groups. The presence of non-reef habitats influences coral reef fish densities on reef sg-mg. At species level, 22 species of the 50 observed species on reef far and 5 species of the 19 observed species on reef Comoros showed significantly higher adult densities on reef sg-mg than on reef far or reef Comoros. This indicates that these species have an advantage of nearby non-reef habitats as a juvenile habitat, but they can sustain on reef far or reef Comoros. On reef far 28 species and on reef Comoros 14 species showed no effect of the absence of non-reef habitats on adult fish densities on the coral reef. It is suggested that these species are able to use the coral reef as an alternative nursery and do not depend on non-reef habitats. They can possibly spend their entire life cycle on the reef and are to some extent self-sustaining.

consists of eight main islands and numerous islets on the atoll rim,
surrounding a large and open lagoon. The two largest islands, Wizard and
Menai, are those usually visited by scientists. There has been no
detailed survey of Cosmoledo at any time, though many expeditions have
called there for brief visits (Table 4) . The main published accounts
are those by Dupont (1907, 8-12), Fryer (1911, 428-430), Travis (1959,
111-156), Baker (1963, 86-92), and Piggott (1961, 27-30; 1968, 53-54).
Ten members of the Royal Society Expedition to Aldabra visited Menai
and Wizard Islands in March 1968, and five more visited Menai only in
September 1968 : this paper summarises earlier work and adds new information
from the Royal Society surveys .
The main hydrographic survey of Cosmoledo was by W. J . L. Wharton
in 1878, published as Admiralty Chart 718 in 1879 . This chart, with
revisions by H.M.S. Owen in 1964, is still current . The atoll was
covered by aerial· photography in 1960, and Baker (1963, 87, 89, 91, 93)
used air photographs to prepare sketch maps of the geology of the main
islands. Figure 3 is based primarily on the 1960 air photograph cover,
with topographic control and bathymetry from the 1967 edition of Admiralty
Chart 718. This map should not be used for navigational purposes without
further field survey .

Elasmobranchs face severe overexploitation worldwide and data to support effective fisheries management are lacking, particularly for artisanal fisheries. There is a dearth of information on Mauritian fisheries and nothing is known about elasmobranch catches in the artisanal sector. Artisanal fishers (n=92) were interviewed across Mauritius island, to assess the basic characteristics and magnitude of the elasmobranch fishery. Elasmobranchs were targeted using lines and were caught incidentally in nets, but whatever the intent of the catch, sharks and rays were almost always retained to eat or sell. Eleven elasmobranch species were recorded including Sphyrnidae, Carcharidae, Lamnidae, Rhinobatidae (Rhynchobatus djiddensis Carcharidae, Lamnidae, Rhinobatidae (Rhynchobatus djiddensis Carcharidae, Lamnidae, Rhinobatidae () and Myliobatidae (Manta spp). spp). spp It appears that Mauritian industrial fisheries were responsible for significant shark mortality from the late 1990s until the early 2000s, resulting in severe declines. Currently, elasmobranchs are rarely caught by artisanal fishers and there is no major market for shark fins in Mauritius.

Hemidactylus geckos are probably the most widespread genus of reptiles, with a world-wide distribution and multiple
cases of range expansion and transmarine colonization. With an almost cosmopolitan distribution and many species being
morphologically similar it has proved difficult to delimit species diversity and distributions. Using a comprehensive
analysis of individuals collected across the Western Indian Ocean islands and some locations along the East African coast,
we further assess their diversity and the origin of insular populations. Despite four species of Hemidactylus being
widespread across the Western Indian Ocean islands, most of their range in this area may actually be the result of very
recent (possibly human-aided) dispersal events. Most probably, all Hemidactylus species occurring in the Comoros and
granitic Seychelles archipelagoes are not native. Instances of natural colonization seem to be only the ones of H. mabouia
to Madagascar and from there to the coralline archipelago of Aldabra. Surprisingly, Aldabra populations reveal a
remarkable diversity and structure. Given the degree of divergence observed we propose that insular (Gulf of Guinea,
Comoros, Madagascar, Seychelles) populations of H. mabouia are recognized as H. mercatorius. Cryptic variation is
further uncovered in all species in their native range, with H. platycephalus and H. mabouia harbouring several highly
divergent lineages, but further taxonomic assignments should await detailed assessments of distribution and molecular
variation.