Beneath Our Waters: Why Seychelles Needs a Hydrographic Office

Cabinet has approved the establishment of the Seychelles Hydrographic Office (SHO) within the Seychelles Maritime Safety Authority (SMSA), creating a dedicated national framework to better understand and manage Seychelles’ vast maritime domain.

State House Press caught up with SMSA Chief Executive Officer Captain Daniel Adam to learn more about hydrography and its role in safer navigation, search and rescue, marine planning and the Blue Economy.

Why do we need such a dedicated office?

The Seychelles Hydrographic Office is a specialised department within SMSA that brings together hydrographic information from across government and from international partners. Its role is to coordinate, manage and preserve that information as a national asset and make it available to the agencies that need it, whether for navigation, search and rescue, marine planning, environmental management or other maritime activities.

More broadly, hydrography helps us understand the ocean that surrounds us. If maps help us understand the land, hydrography helps us understand the sea. As Seychelles continues to develop as an ocean state, that knowledge becomes increasingly important for safety, the Blue Economy and national decision-making.

So, in simple terms, we are essentially mapping and understanding what lies beneath and within our waters?

Exactly. It is about building our knowledge of the maritime environment. That includes the depth and shape of the seabed and other information that allows us to better understand and safely use our waters.

Seychelles has a vast maritime territory. How much do we currently know about our seabed and waters, and are there areas that still need to be properly surveyed?

Seychelles’ hydrographic story began long before independence and even before permanent settlement. The islands appeared on early charts centuries ago, and the first recorded hydrographic surveys of Seychelles waters took place in 1742. Much of the information that still underpins our charts today originates from surveys carried out before independence, primarily by the British Admiralty.

More recently, a major hydrographic survey completed in 2024 through a partnership with the UK Hydrographic Office generated around four terabytes of data and mapped approximately 650 km² of waters around Mahe, Praslin and La Digue.

While that was a significant achievement, it also highlights the scale of the challenge. Seychelles has a maritime domain of around 1.4 million km², meaning the survey covered less than 0.05% of that area.

The reality is that hydrography is never finished. Some areas have modern survey coverage, while others still rely on older information and would benefit from further surveying. The role of the Seychelles Hydrographic Office is to coordinate, manage and continuously improve our understanding of the maritime domain as new data becomes available.

Less than 0.05% sounds extremely small. Does that mean there is still a great deal about our waters that we do not know in sufficient detail?

Yes, and that is why this has to be viewed as a continuing process. Seychelles has an enormous maritime domain compared with its land area. Surveying all of it to modern standards cannot happen overnight. What is important is identifying priorities and progressively improving the information available to us.

Would Seychelles be able to carry out more hydrographic surveys locally?

Seychelles has obligations under international maritime conventions, including SOLAS Chapter V and UNCLOS, to ensure that appropriate hydrographic information is available to support maritime safety. We meet those responsibilities through a combination of national capability and agreements with other States and international organisations.

The important point is that the data collected within Seychelles’ maritime domain remains a sovereign national asset. Whether information is gathered directly by Seychelles or through partnerships, the Seychelles Hydrographic Office will coordinate, manage and maintain that information on behalf of the country.

Over time, our understanding of the maritime domain will continue to improve through a combination of traditional hydrographic surveys, satellite-derived bathymetry, remote sensing, crowd-sourced bathymetry and other emerging technologies. The goal is to progressively build a more complete picture of Seychelles’ waters and seabed while ensuring that the knowledge remains available to support navigation, search and rescue, environmental protection, marine planning and the Blue Economy.

So Seychelles does not necessarily have to survey every part of its waters using traditional methods?

No. Technology is changing the way hydrographic information can be gathered. Traditional surveys remain important, but satellite-derived bathymetry, remote sensing and other emerging technologies can complement those surveys. International cooperation also remains important, particularly given the sheer size of Seychelles’ maritime domain.

Beyond navigation and safety, how will this office contribute to Seychelles’ Blue Economy and the sustainable use of our marine resources?

Modern hydrography extends far beyond maritime safety. It is increasingly about marine information and understanding the maritime domain as a whole.

As new standards and technologies emerge, hydrographic information can be combined with environmental, meteorological and geospatial data to provide a more complete picture of our ocean space. This supports marine spatial planning, fisheries management, environmental protection, climate change adaptation and sustainable economic development.

It also strengthens search and rescue operations by providing better information about our waters and maritime environment, while supporting our tourism and maritime sectors through more accurate and reliable marine information. Better information leads to better planning, better decision-making and greater confidence in the safe and sustainable use of our maritime domain.

Ultimately, the Hydrographic Office helps transform data about the ocean into knowledge that supports the Blue Economy and helps Seychelles make informed decisions about how we use, protect and manage our marine resources for future generations.

So this is not simply about producing better charts for ships?

Not at all. Navigation is an important part of hydrography, but the information has much wider applications. It can support fisheries, environmental protection, search and rescue, tourism, marine spatial planning, climate adaptation and decisions about how Seychelles sustainably develops its ocean space.

Now that Cabinet has given its approval, what happens next? When do we expect the office to be fully operational?

Cabinet approval formalises the Seychelles Hydrographic Office as a specialist department within SMSA and also provides for the establishment of the National Hydrographic Committee. The next steps are to strengthen the structures needed to coordinate hydrographic activities, manage national hydrographic data, support partnerships and continue developing capability over time.

So, does that mean the Hydrographic Office is already operating?

Hydrography is not a project with a fixed end date, but an ongoing national capability that will continue to grow as new data, technologies and requirements emerge.

Rather than focusing on when it will be fully operational, it is better to see it as a long-term programme. We are continuously improving our understanding of the maritime domain, whether through hydrographic surveys, satellite-derived bathymetry, emerging technologies, international cooperation or the management of existing data.

The office will evolve alongside those developments. The important development is that Seychelles now has a dedicated national framework to coordinate, manage and preserve hydrographic information as a sovereign national asset for the benefit of current and future generations.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of State House Seychelles.