Seychelles, officially the Republic of Seychelles, is an island country and archipelagic state consisting of 155 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, Victoria, is 1,500 kilometres east of mainland Africa. Nearby island countries and territories include the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, and the French overseas departments of Mayotte and Réunion to the south; and the Chagos Archipelago to the east. Seychelles is the smallest country in Africa as well as the least populated sovereign African country, with an estimated population of 100,600 in 2022.
The politics of Seychelles have historical roots in both one-party socialism and autocratic rule. Following independence from the United Kingdom in 1976, Seychelles was a sovereign republic until 1977, when the original President and leader of the Seychelles Democratic Party, James Mancham, was overthrown in a bloodless coup by the Prime Minister France-Albert René. René installed a single-party socialist state under the Seychelles People's Progressive Front in 1979 which remained in power until 1993, when multiparty elections took place for the first time since independence, after restoring the multi-party system in 1991. Modern day Seychelles governance takes place in a framework of a presidential republic, whereby the President of Seychelles is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly.
The albacore, known also as the longfin tuna, is a species of tuna of the order Scombriformes. It is found in temperate and tropical waters across the globe in the epipelagic and mesopelagic zones. There are six distinct stocks known globally in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, as well as the Mediterranean Sea. The albacore has an elongate, fusiform body with a conical snout, large eyes, and remarkably long pectoral fins. Its body is a deep blue dorsally and shades of silvery white ventrally. Individuals can reach up to 1.4 m in length.
France-Albert René was a Seychellois lawyer, politician and statesman who served as the second President of Seychelles from 1977 to 2004. He also served as the country's second Prime Minister from its independence in 1976 to 1977.
The Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter 1972, commonly called the "London Convention" or "LC '72" and also abbreviated as Marine Dumping, is an agreement to control pollution of the sea by dumping and to encourage regional agreements supplementary to the convention. It covers the deliberate disposal at sea of wastes or other matter from vessels, aircraft, and platforms. It does not cover discharges from land-based sources such as pipes and outfalls, wastes generated incidental to normal operation of vessels, or placement of materials for purposes other than mere disposal, providing such disposal is not contrary to aims of the convention. It entered into force in 1975. As of September 2016, there were 89 Parties to the convention.
The Indian Ocean Commission is an intergovernmental organisation that links African Indian Ocean nations: Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion, and Seychelles. There are also seven observers: China, the European Union, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, the Sovereign Order of Malta, India, Japan and the United Nations.
The Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) is an intergovernmental organization with a mandate to provide scientific advice and management of fisheries in the northwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean. NAFO is headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), formerly known as the Indian Ocean Rim Initiative (IORI) and the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC), is an international organisation consisting of 23 states bordering the Indian Ocean. The IORA is a regional forum, tripartite in nature, bringing together representatives of Government, Business and Academia, for promoting co-operation and closer interaction among them. It is based on the principles of for strengthening Economic Cooperation particularly on Trade Facilitation and Investment, Promotion as well as Social Development of the region. The Coordinating Secretariat of IORA is located at Ebene, Mauritius.
The African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty, also known as the Treaty of Pelindaba, establishes a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Africa. The treaty was signed in 1996 and came into effect with the 28th ratification on 15 July 2009.
The bigeye tuna is a species of true tuna of the genus Thunnus, belonging to the wider mackerel family Scombridae. In Hawaiian, it is one of two species known as ʻahi, the other being the yellowfin tuna. Bigeye tuna are found in the open waters of all tropical and temperate oceans, but not in the Mediterranean Sea.
A regional fishery body (RFB) is a type of international organization that is part of an international fishery agreement or arrangement to cooperate on the sustainable use and conservation of marine living resources and/or the development of marine capture fisheries whose such capacity has been recognized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization under the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement.
The Fishery Resources Monitoring System (FIRMS) is a partnership of intergovernmental fisheries organizations that share information on the global monitoring and management of marine fishery resources.
The South East Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (SEAFO) is an organization that maintains controls over fishing and fishing related acts in the Southeastern Atlantic Ocean.
The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia. The territory comprises the seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago with over 1,000 individual islands, many very small, amounting to a total land area of 60 square kilometres. The largest and most southerly island is Diego Garcia, 27 square kilometres, the site of a Joint Military Facility of the United Kingdom and the United States. Official administration is remote from London, though the local capital is often regarded as being on Diego Garcia.
The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) is a regional fisheries management organisation established to conserve and manage tuna and other highly migratory fish stocks across the western and central areas of the Pacific Ocean. Its full name is Commission for the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean. It commenced operations in late 2005, and its secretariat is based in Pohnpei, in the northern Pacific state of the Federated States of Micronesia.
Dr. Moritaka Hayashi is an international lawyer, scholar and author, who is widely considered a leading expert on the impact of human activity on the world's oceans. Over a period of nearly 40 years, he has published extensively on issues involving the law of the sea, including overfishing, maritime shipping and maritime security. In 2008, he served on an international commission that generated controversy by calling for the immediate suspension of bluefin tuna fishing in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. He has also served as an official at the United Nations and as a diplomat for the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations.
The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission is a tuna regional fishery management organisation responsible for the conservation and management of tuna and other marine resources in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
The Nairobi Convention is a partnership between governments, civil society and the private sector, working towards a prosperous Western Indian Ocean Region with healthy rivers, coasts and oceans. It pursues this vision by providing a mechanism for regional cooperation, coordination and collaborative actions; it enables the Contracting Parties to harness resources and expertise from a wide range of stakeholders and interest groups; and in this way it helps solve inter-linked problems of the region's coastal and marine environment.
The Vanilla Alliance is an airline alliance formed in September 2015. The alliance is the fourth largest in the world as of 2018, trailing Oneworld, Star Alliance, and SkyTeam. All of the airlines within the alliance operate in the Indian Ocean region and are based in sovereign states that are members of the Indian Ocean Commission or French overseas territories in the Indian Ocean.
Of the twelve species of billfish, there are six species of Billfish in the Indian Ocean.
