The overarching goal for this Office of Naval Research funded project is to develop predictive capabilities for physical oceanography for the Seychelles region in support of locally relevant marine applications while providing context for larger scale NASCar (North Arabian Sea Circulation – autonomous research) efforts. A key project objective is to establish local capacity for ocean observations in the Seychelles region that will lead to long-term data collection efforts. In collaboration with local partnerships, we will carry out an observational program that will provide a foundational data set for regional and local scale modeling efforts. The work will also include development of a preliminary 3D numerical model for the region. The observational and modeling efforts will be critical in identifying primary forcing mechanisms for local oceanography in a complex and relatively under-sampled environment.