Gough Island, part of the UK Overseas Territory of Tristan da Cunha located in the remote South Atlantic, is considered one of the most important seabird islands on the planet. A World Heritage Site, this small spec in the ocean is known to support millions of breeding seabirds, including the iconic Critically Endangered Tristan albatross. Sadly, non-native invasive mice were introduced by passing sealers during the 1800s. Today, we know the invasive mice kill over 600,000 chicks each and every year. If nothing is done, we will lose some of these iconic seafarers forever.
The RSPB and our partners are working hard to restore Gough Island, as part of the Gough Island Restoration Programme. As the RSPB prepares to restore Gough Island, Keith Springer, our eradication expert, embarks on his first visit to the island. Here is his story so far.
If you would like to learn more about the Gough Island Restoration Programme, please follow this link.
If you would like to support our efforts to save this important seabird island and prevent the deaths of over 600,000 seabird chicks a year, please go to our donation page.
Click here for Part 1 of this blog series.
It’s now two weeks since departure from Cape Town. The first week was at sea en route to Tristan da Cunha, where we spent a couple of days offloading passengers and cargo. A short hop took us to Nightingale Island where we dropped off a team of six people who will be based there to study northern rockhopper penguins.
From Nightingale it was an overnight hop before we arrived at Gough Island. We steamed down the northern coast with its steep slopes and offshore rock stacks, first impressions were of a steep high island with nothing much in the way of accessible coast, and high enough to act as a cloud generator as the weather swept in from any direction, but with a predominant westerly flow.
Credit: Ben Dilley
The Department of Environmental Affairs inspection team flew ashore first while the rest of us spent a couple of hours waiting on board. Around the ship were numerous giant petrels on the water, while in the air a variety of seabirds wheeled around – sooty albatross, Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross and grey petrels in particular. It’s interesting to see these birds as I am more used to their relatives in the sub-Antarctic islands south of NZ – light-mantled sooty albatross and grey-headed albatross for example.
Before long the inspection team had returned from their base check ashore and soon the remaining 26 people were flown ashore to be greeted by the resident team. Once we were shown to our accommodation and located our gear, there was a chance to catch up with the team who have been here for the past year. Working for the Tristan Conservation Department have been Chris, Derren and Jan. The former two are from the UK and the latter from South Africa. They have been studying birds and monitoring populations and carrying out pest plant control on Sagina procumbens, an invasive weed that is found around the base area and on nearby cliffs. Jan is a rope access technician so his rope and climbing skills have been in heavy demand for the past year.
Jan Bradley, Chris Taylor and Derren Fox
The following day was fairly calm and clear, so Adriaan, the expedition leader, decided it was a good opportunity to put me on a helicopter flight to have a look at the island first hand. George Swain from the Tristan Conservation Department also came along, together with Chris and Jan to provide local knowledge and point out the salient features. We flew clockwise around the island just offshore, and stopped in GP Valley at the north-western corner of the island. A flat spur in the valley had been identified as a possible bait loading site by Keith Broome and Peter Garden when they visited the island in 2007. It’s a broad spur, with a gentle slope toward the coast, and covered with soft mossy vegetation.
The weight of the helicopter landing on it soon had water pooling around the skids, so that told me in one minute flat that if we want to put close to 80 tonnes of bait pods on it and have them stay dry, then we’d need to lay down sheets of FRP (fibreglass reinforced plastic) first to spread the weight and keep the bait pods from compressing the ground and squeezing the water up all around them. We would also look to establish a small camp here to support a couple of people, to provide on-the-spot weather observations of wind, rain and cloud levels to inform the base team when conditions were suitable to fly across and start baiting. Depending on how many helicopters we end up using, one or two would start spreading bait from this base and work toward the other end of the island.
Credit: Keith Springer
Taking off from Giant Petrel Valley, we continued around the northern coastline. The intent was to head up to the inland peaks to get an impression of the higher ground and the deeply incised valley that split the island, but by then the cloud base had descended so that wasn’t possible. From the views of the island we did get, it is clear that there are many cliffs and some extremely rugged terrain. That said, the primary goal in aerial baiting is to spread sufficient bait at an accurate pattern across the entire island to ensure that every mouse has an opportunity to encounter bait. With the baiting specifications planned, this looks entirely feasible, despite the rugged terrain. Numerous islands have steep terrain and mouse eradication has still been achieved, so there are precedents for this work on similar islands. Antipodes Island, baited a couple of months ago under the Million Dollar Mouse project, had much higher vertical sea cliffs than does Gough but not the rugged interior terrain, and while it is too early to say if mice have been eradicated from Antipodes, we were confident that we got bait into every part of that island.
With the weather ruling out flying for the rest of the day, I joined the resident and incoming conservation teams to weigh rockhopper penguins in nearby Seal Bay. Descending a steep vegetated slope with the aid of a fixed rope, we crossed a stream to access the colony. These northern rockhoppers closely resemble the southern variety found on the likes of Macquarie Island, but have an even more wacky hairdo – with much longer and more abundant plumes in their crest, as well as a rather punk do rising from the back of the head, with the overall effect being that they are wearing a brightly coloured but unruly yellow mop on their heads. They have a similar feisty attitude to the southern race though and were not at all happy about being caught, having their bills measured and then suspended in a harness for weighing. With the incoming team of Phil, David and Emma being a northern hemisphere species (all hailing from the UK) this was their first chance to work with a southern hemisphere species like penguins and they soon made the acquaintance of the business end of these reluctant science subjects, and were variously beaten by flailing flippers and pecked and twisted by indignant beaks.
Credit: Chris Taylor
Climbing out of the bay by means of a ladder, we returned to base through the scrubby vegetation found on the coastal areas of the island, which in this case was home to an Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross colony. It has been an interesting and educating first full day on the island. I’ve not seen anything really that concerns me about the prospect of aerial baiting here. The steeply rising terrain inland from the coast is an extra challenge for the helicopter pilots in terms of varying altitude whilst maintaining their flight line accuracy, but that is why we want experienced pilots who can undertake that sort of flying. The next step is to look more closely at the base infrastructure to see what support an eradication expedition can expect.
Why not explore Gough Island for yourself using Google Maps/Earth? The 3D rendering gives a feel for the island and you can explore the base, cliffs, and mountainous interior.
Note: All images used in this blog are not from the current expedition to Gough Island. Available bandwidth on such a remote island does not allow images to be readily emailed or uploaded. We will bring you images from Keith’s visit to the island as soon as we can.