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ISRA FACTSHEETS

WESTERN INDIAN OCEAN REGION

ISRA FACTSHEETS

WESTERN INDIAN OCEAN REGION

Baie Laraie ISRA

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Baie Laraie ISRA

Baie Laraie

Summary

Baie Laraie is located on the southeastern side of Curieuse Island, Republic of Seychelles. It is a sheltered shallow lagoon with a fringing mangrove forest, seagrass beds, coral reefs, and sandy substrates. This area sits within a marine national park and the Mahe, Alphonse and Amirantes Plateau Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Area. Within this area there are: threatened species and reproductive areas (Sharptooth Lemon Shark Negaprion acutidens).

Baie Laraie

Baie Laraie

DESCRIPTION OF HABITAT

Baie Laraie is located on the southeastern side of Curieuse Island, Republic of Seychelles. It is a unique sheltered shallow lagoon and hosts one of the largest and most diverse fringing mangrove forests of the Inner Islands of Seychelles (Hodgekiss et al. 2017). The seaward edge of the mangrove forest comprises predominantly True Mangrove Rhizophora mucronata, inundated to a depth of 1.2 m during spring tides (Global Vision International 2019). At low tide, sand flats become exposed in the northwestern section of the lagoon. Seagrass beds located in the centre of the lagoon are only partially exposed at the lowest tides. There are several deeper sections of sand and sporadic patches of coral adjacent to the causeway (Global Vision International 2019). The southern section of the lagoon has a maximum depth of 1.5 m at high tide. At tides below 0.7 m, the fork at the southern end of the causeway forms a pool.

This area sits within the Curieuse Marine National Park and the Mahe, Alphonse, and Amirantes Plateau Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Area (CBD 2023).

This Important Shark and Ray Area is benthopelagic and is delineated from inshore and surface waters (0 m) to 3 m based on the bathymetry of the area.

CRITERION A

VULNERABILITY

The one Qualifying Species within the area is considered threatened with extinction according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM. The Sharptooth Lemon Shark is assessed as Endangered (Simpfendorfer et al. 2021).

CRITERION C

SUB-CRITERION C1 – REPRODUCTIVE AREAS

Baie Laraie is an important reproductive area for one shark species.

A mark-recapture passive integrated transponder (PIT) tagging study of Sharptooth Lemon Sharks at Baie Laraie was conducted from October 2014 to October 2016 (Hodgkiss et al. 2017). Of the 189 individuals caught, 187 were classified as neonates, based on open or recently closed umbilical scars and body size, relative to size-at-birth data for the species (Hodgkiss et al. 2017). The remaining two individuals were classed as young-of-the-year, based on closed and healed umbilical scars (Hodgkiss et al. 2017). The size-at-birth for this species is 60 cm total length (TL; Ebert et al. 2021). The mean size of neonate individuals (n = 187) was 65 cm TL (range: 59–80 cm TL).

Baie Laraie

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