'Island Invasives' - public lecture

Published On Thu 6 Jul 2017 by Roddy Isles

Professor Tony Martin, Professor of Animal Conservation at the University of Dundee and former Director of the South Georgia Heritage Trust’s Habitat Restoration Project, will recount the remarkable story of the charity that funded and undertook the largest ever island eradication, making it a world leader in island conservation, in a public lecture in Dundee next week.

Professor Martin’s talk on Monday July 10 will look at the project which cleared millions of rats from South Georgia and preserved the future of millions of breeding seabirds.

Professor Martin, who was awarded the Zoological Society of London Conservationist of the Year 2016 for his work on the project, said, “South Georgia in the Southern Ocean has no access by air and is several days sailing from the Falkland Islands, across some of the most tempestuous seas on the planet. As with so many islands, the location and remoteness that makes South Georgia attractive to wildlife are the very characteristics that made it so tough for us seeking to protect that wildlife from damaging invaders introduced by humans.

“Directing this monumental project for SGHT was the most daunting challenge of my life. To achieve the desired result within a restricted budget and timescale, and to keep everyone safe, required the input and advice of experts from around the world, and a brilliant team of people to plan, organise and carry out the work.

“My talk will cover the development and execution of the six-year project, and the extraordinary people, both at home and on South Georgia, who made it happen. It is a story of hope overcoming despair, of broken helicopters and grinding fatigue, and ultimately of relief and exultation as the island's wildlife showed immediate signs of recovery after the last bait pellet was dropped.

“In what is no more than a brief moment in the long history of South Georgia, two centuries of profound human-induced damage to the island's wildlife appears to have been reversed. Millions of birds are now expected to reclaim their ancestral home, and the future of the unique, delicate South Georgia pipit looks to be secure.”

The lecture on Monday is free to attend and runs from 6.15pm until 7.30pm in the Dalhousie Building, University of Dundee, with an introduction by UK Environment Minister Lord Gardiner.

The talk takes place as part of a major conference convened and hosted by the South Georgia Heritage Trust and the University of Dundee. Called Island Invasives 2017, it takes place between 10-14 July, bringing together some of the key practitioners in this field. They will be sharing conservation stories, information and best practice, their presentations offering a global picture of the state of the world’s islands whose ecosystems often hang in the balance due to the impact of invasive species.

Topics being covered range from biosecurity and plant invasions to rat eradications and tackling mass extinctions. Speakers will explore how achievements in this field can be scaled up to meet the global conservation challenges brought about by invasive species.

It is the first time the Island Invasive Species conference has been held in the Northern Hemisphere.

The Island of South Georgia in the sub-Antarctic was once thought to hold the greatest concentration of breeding seabirds on earth – it was a sanctuary and breeding ground for hundreds of different species. However, after discovery by Captain Cook in 1775 the island attracted sealers and whalers who unwittingly brought rodent stowaways on their ships.

Those rats and mice had a catastrophic impact on the seabirds of South Georgia, who had evolved in the absence of furry predators and who nested on the ground or in burrows. Rodents spread quickly across the habitable parts of the island, eating the eggs and chicks of the seabirds. As the island’s glaciers began to rapidly melt towards the end of the 20^th century, yet more of the island was accessible to rats, putting the endemic South Georgia pipit and the South Georgia pintail at risk of extinction and threatening the permanent loss of tens of millions of seabirds denied a place to breed safely.

The South Georgia Heritage Trust took on this enormous task with no prior experience of this type of operation, raised £8 million, bought three helicopters and embarked upon a six-year project to tackle the problem.

About South Georgia Heritage Trust

The South Georgia Heritage Trust was founded in 2005 to preserve the sub-Antarctic island’s natural, human and cultural heritage, raise awareness of the island’s endangered flora and fauna through research and public engagement, and manage practical conservation programmes to protect native species.

The Conference is being convened by the South Georgia Heritage Trust in partnership with the University of Dundee primarily because of the help and advice that SGHT received from the Island Invasives community whist undertaking the South Georgia rodent eradication (or Habitat Restoration Project). This was the largest island eradication ever attempted and was a major step forward in island conservation globally.

The charity baited the entire rodent-infested area of the Island of South Georgia (1000km²) in 2011, 2013 and 2015. The total cost of this Habitat Restoration Project, including the monitoring work still to come, is an estimated £7.5 million.  The project has been funded entirely by donations raised by Scottish charity SGHT and its US counterpart, Friends of South Georgia Island (FOSGI).

For further information about the Habitat Restoration Project visit: www.sght.org

About Island Invasives 2017

For more information, visit http://www.islandinvasives2017.com/

In the context of the Island Invasives 2017 meeting, the definition of ‘island’ is broader than just a piece of land surrounded by water. Much the same problems and solutions apply to land surrounded by predator-proof fences, and to unfenced but isolated patches of habitat such as coral reefs.

Awareness of the damaging impact of invasive species is growing rapidly, just as the problem itself is growing. Island flora and fauna tend to be particularly vulnerable to Invasive alien species (IAS), and many insular endemics have been driven to extinction by these invaders. But, by their very nature, islands may also offer the possibility of long-term refuge and security if alien species can be eradicated or effectively controlled.

Over recent decades, the management and even eradication of island invasives has developed from a concept born of desperation to small scale experimentation, to medium scale trials, to large scale operations where success is almost expected. The scale of response is increasing to meet the escalating challenge. Progress is made largely by learning from the lessons and experience of earlier operations, good and bad. For this, there is no substitute for face-to-face discussion, the discovery of new approaches from posters and spoken presentations, and access to the best people in the business, all gathered in one place.

For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head of Corporate Communications
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
Tel: +44 (0)1382 384910
Mobile: 07800 581902
Email: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk