An historic day in South Georgia

"Alpha Mike" in action.

FRIDAY 4th March was a momentous occasion in the Human History of South Georgia.  Not only was it my 26th Birthday (!), but the South Georgia Habitat Restoration Project reached the first milestone in the tremendously exciting Rat eradication project by completing the aerial bait spreading of the Greene Peninsular to the South of King Edward Point.  This remarkable achievement was the first major step in the project's plans to spread Brodifacum, a specially blended and selected rat poison on Rat infested areas of the island.  The poison, which is dropped from hoppers suspended under two Messersmidt helicopters, will target areas bounded by Glaciers or the Sea.  It is believed that the Rats are unable to traverse these areas, therefore as each area is poisoned, there are no fears of re-population by neighbouring Rats.  Early studies undertaken yesterday show positive results.  A good spread of bait was observed by the demarcation of 20m x 20m areas and the counting of the bait pellets.  In addition, Rat droppings tainted with the bait's luminous green dye were found by Sally Poncet, indicating quite literally the Rats have taken the bait.  The ambitious project aims to eradicate rats completely from the island within a year, which will have an immeasurably positive impact on the native wildlife, it particular the South Georgia Pipit, which is only found exclusively on the Island, and have been driven to near extinction by the ravenous rat population.

Innes from GEO magazine

So the day bought about a lot of activity, most of which required boat support, so I spent nearly all day on the water dropping SGHR team members and government officers over to the Greene, and ferrying the GEO magazine crew over to the East Coast to take footage of the helicopters doing their thing.  I used it as an opportunity to train some members of base staff on the Ribs.  Katie and the morning, and our latest addition to the SAR support team, Sue, who is undertaking intense training and joining the ranks during her stay here.  The SAR support team are base members who are rota'd on to be available on base for immediate Search and Rescue should there be an incident with the helicopters.  Each morning during a brief, it is declared a flying day or otherwise based on the current and forecast weather conditions.  If it is deemed a flying day, then the SAR team will be on standby to provide lifeboat assistance, and to support team rat's emergency response team.  Following an exercise to test the SAR plan last week, we were put to the test over lunch on Tuesday when a call for immediate and urgent boating assistance was made on the VHF.  Myself and the other on call staff leaped to our feet and began running to the boatshed.  Thankfully, both helicopters were fine, and the call was in response to a hopper which had been inadvertently dropped in to the sea.  Currently a dive team and Ashley are working on it's recovery.

The helicopter "Tango Charlie" in the early morning light.
Photo: Sam Crimmin