Reef fishes are a cornerstone of Seychelles’ Blue Economy, but their abundance is not static in space and time. To test whether monsoon season and the associated ocean temperature change drive variations in abundant reef fish assemblages, Baited Remote Underwater Video Systems (BRUVS) were used around Frégate Island, Seychelles. Overall, 30 BRUVS were deployed at 10 sites shortly after both the North-West (NW) and South-East (...

Marine ecosystems are increasingly threatened by overfishing, pollution, coastal development and climate change, underscoring the need for long‐term, representative information on key fish populations and habitats to inform management and policy. Underwater fish observation (UFObs) techniques, such as Underwater Visual Census (UVC), stereo‐Baited Remote Underwater Video (stereo‐BRUV) and Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), play...

The need to move toward marine ecosystem-based management is globally recognized. Few countries effectively account for multiple interacting pressures in their marine assessments, planning and management. Many socio-economic sectors currently operate in South African waters and in most cases, their associated pressures are managed on a sector-by-sector basis and interacting pressures are seldom accounted for in assessments or...

Despite the increasing number of tools and indicators to measure biodiversity status and trends, many developing countries struggle to initiate and advance coastal and marine assessments needed to monitor and track national and international progress in biodiversity targets. We identified five key challenges that hinder progress in this context, based on a national marine assessment workshop held in South Africa, and developed...