Listening intently.  Anton Wolfaardt, Sue Tonin and Keith Springer at a workshop on House Mouse eradication challenges associated with the Island Invasives 2026 Conference in New Zealand in February 2026, photograph by Guy Preston

Raising awareness of the Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: The Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project by giving presentations to the professional community and to the general public alike is an important function undertaken by members of the MFM team.  Such lectures and talks by Anton Wolfaardt, MFM Project Manager and Sue Tonin, MFM Assistant Project Manager, as well as by others, including BirdLife South Africa’s CEO, Mark Anderson (Chair, MFM Project Management Committee), have been regularly reported on in articles on the project’s website for several years.

So far this year, MFM team members have spoken at 15 online and in-person events and interviews in Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa.  Starting off the year in February, Anton and Sue, along with Keith Springer, MFM Project’s Operations Manager and Guy Preston, MFM NPC Board Member, attended the fourth Island Invasives 2026 Conference in Auckland, New Zealand, where they presented a joint paper entitled “Saving Marion Island’s seabirds: The Mouse-Free Marion Project. Advancing toward the eradication of house mice from a globally significant sub-Antarctic island”.  As part of the conference Keith facilitated a one-day workshop “Challenges in improving mouse eradication success rates”.

Photobombed by an Okapi! Mark with Emi Shimizu, BirdLife International, Tokyo (centre) and Mayumi Kitaja, Embassy of the Republic of South Africa, Tokyo, Japan, at Zoorasia, the Yokohama Municipal Zoological Gardens, during his visit to Japan in June 2026

In June, Mark travelled to Japan where he gave a presentation to business people hosted by the South African Embassy and was interviewed by various media, including NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation).  This trip followed up on his earlier fund-raising visit to Japan on behalf of the project in September 2025.  In the same month Anton gave a well-received talk to the Hermanus Bird Club (which had supported the MFM Project with a five-hectare sponsorship in 2021).

Keith gave an online talk from his home in New Zealand on 19 June entitled “Managing vertebrate pests on seabird breeding colonies in the Southern Ocean“.  His presentation was in the Birds Australia’s 2026 Seabird Webinar Series to mark World Albatross Day with its theme of “Habitat Restoration”.

In July, Mark gave an online lecture to the “Learn the Birds” Project.  In the same month, Anton described the MFM Project to the annual Plett Ocean Festival in Plettenberg Bay.

From left: John Cooper, MFM Project News Correspondent, Rory Heather-Clarke, Marion Island cat hunter in the 1980s and Liezl Pretorius at the Stellenbosch book launch on 22 August 2026, photograph by Robyn Adams

In September, Liezl Pretorius MFM Project, Research and Reporting Officer, spoke at a book promotion in Stellenbosch, and Monique van Bers, MFM Project’s Field Assistant on Marion Island during 2024/25, gave a well-received talk about her Marion Island experiences at the South African Bird Fair in Pretoria.  Also in September, Roelf Daling, one of the two 2025/26 MFM Project Field Assistants, was interviewed by Martelize Brink on Radio Sonder Grense (Radio Without Borders) in Afrikaans about his year-long island experience.

On 09 October Sue was interviewed by John Maytham on Radio 604 about progress with the MFM Project and her September trip to Marion Island when the 2026/27 overwintering team arrived.

Glass in hand, Anton tells the Somerset West Bird Club field outing about the MFM Project during an evening meal at Landmeterskop Farm near Stanford, photograph by John Cooper

On 16 October, Anton gave an impromptu evening talk to 15 members of the Somerset West Bird Club on its weekend field outing to the Overberg District.  The BirdLife South Africa-affiliated club, and its Chair, Willene van der Merwe, have both supported the MFM Project via its “Sponsor a Hectare” scheme.

Anton lectures at the Bitou Birding Festival last month, photograph by John Kinghorn

October was a busy month for the MFM Project.  On the 20th Roelf Daling, and fellow 2025/26 MFM Project Field Assistant Vonica Perold, gave an hour-long over online talk “Life on Marion Island.  Stories from the Southern Ocean” in BirdLife South Africa’s Conservation Conversations Webinar Series, describing the island’s wildlife, including its introduced mice, and what it is to like to live in the sub-Antarctic for a year.

To round off the month, Anton gave a lecture on the MFM Project to an audience of roughly 35 at the week-long Plett Bitou Birding Festival in and around Plettenberg Bay on 24 October.

 

The MFM team expects to finish off the year by attending and giving two lectures at the National Symposium on Biological Invasions, to be held in Stellenbosch from 9-11 November.  A joint presentation, “Eradicating Mus musculus from globally significant Marion Island”, co-authored with Anton and Keith, will be given by Sue.  Additionally, Monique will present part of her MSc research entitled “Patterns of the invasive house mouse (Mus musculus) index abundance across the elevational gradient of Marion Island” that is based on her time working for the project.  Her paper will be co-authored by Anton, Keith, Sue and Michelle Greve, Monique’s supervisor at the University of Pretoria.

Look out for a report on the national invasive conference in MFM News later this month.

John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 03 November 2026

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A hybrid Black-browed-Grey-headed Albatross incubating on Grey-headed Albatross Ridge, Marion Island in October 2023, photograph by Michelle Risi

The Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: The Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project is a registered non-profit company (No. 2020/922433/08) in South Africa, established to eradicate the invasive albatross-killing mice on Marion Island in the Southern Ocean.  The project was initiated by BirdLife South Africa and the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.  Upon successful completion, the project will restore the critical breeding habitat of over two million seabirds, many globally threatened, and improve the island’s resilience to a warming climate.  For more information or to support the project please visit mousefreemarion.org.