Reported by Kara Sewell, Assistant Administrator, British Indian Ocean Territory Administration:A member of the public applied for a mooring permit. I had assessed their application form and insurance documents and was satisfied with these. I had then provided a mooring permit to the individual. The individual was accompanied by his family. During their  stay in British Indian Ocean Territory, they had carved the name of their yacht into one of the pine trees. This vandalism was later discovered by one of my colleagues who is located in the Territory. By the time my colleague discovered this, the individual and his family had departed the territory so we were unfortunately unable to prosecute them. I had confronted him about the vandalism via email but he refused to respond.
We wish to remind vessels that moor in BIOT, that vandalism is unacceptable and legal action will be taken for anyone found vandalising BIOT’s natural resources.[Editor’s Note: See https://www.noonsite.com/place/biot-chagos/formalities#restrictions-section
for what is and isn’t permitted in BIOT].