Desnoeufs

Desnoeufs lies 325 kilometres southwest of Victoria and 12 kilometres southwest of Marie Louise, its nearest neighbour. It has an area of 35 hectares. The island has a sandstone core, which spreads out in concentric circles visible from the air. Desnoeufs was named by the Chevalier du Roslan originally as Ile des Neufs meaning literally "one of the nine," possibly a reference to the nine main islands or atolls of the Amirantes.

History

Desnoeufs has never had a permanent human population because landing is very difficult due to heavy swells even on calm days. There is an account dating from 1846 which states that although “there is anchorage in some places........a chain cable is necessary.  Seals of a large size resort to them.  Being without water, or at least without digging for it twelve feet deep, these isles are only fit for a temporary residence for turtle-catching, planting cocoa and cotton, and the fishery, for which they are used by the Seychellians, to whom they have been conceded by the Government of Mauritius”.  There are buildings which are inhabited from May to August during the egg collecting season. 

Conservation

​The island is almost treeless, covered in grasses and other low-growing plants. It is classified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area, mainly due to its huge seasonal colony of Sooty Terns. This is the second largest colony of Seychelles (after Grand Ile, Cosmoledo). There are also large numbers of Wedge-tailed Shearwater nesting in burrow and Brown Noddy on the ground or in low vegetation. A few Masked Booby breed at what is one of only three remaining sites in Seychelles, the others being Cosmoledo and Boudeuse (though numbers here have markedly declined from earlier decades).   Both hawksbill and green turtles nest at in small numbers at Desnoeufs.

Economic Activities

​IDC oversees the collection and distribution of Sooty Tern eggs, collected from about two-thirds of the island during the nesting season. In order to conserve stocks, collection is not carried out every year.