The protection of the marine birds and sea turtles of St Brandon's Rock, Indian Ocean, requires the conservation of the entire atoll as an ecosystem

A survey of seabirds and turtles at St Brandon’s Rock, 400 km north of Mauritius, was undertaken in 2010. We estimated that 1.2 million seabirds of seven breeding species were present at the archipelago, and counted 279 turtle tracks and nesting pits of green turtles. Hawksbill turtles were also present. The number of species of seabird and overall number of seabirds breeding at the atoll have decreased. An analyses of 30 different islets that make up the atoll shows that the seabird species mostly partition their use of islets based upon islet size, with four species preferring larger islets and two species preferring smaller islets. Alien species introduced historically are still present, and other threats such as shipwrecks remain. We propose conservation and other measures that should adequately protect the birds, turtles and coral reef by treating the atoll as a system.