Above picture: Susanne Kühn examines the body of a Northern Fulmar; photograph by Jan van Franeker
Dutch marine ornithologist Dr Susanne Kühn has recently sponsored a generous 26 hectares (equivalent to R 26 000) towards the Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project. She tells MFM News that she lives on Texel, a small and very pretty island, one of the West Frisian Islands in the north-western part of the Netherlands, where she works for Wageningen Marine Research studying plastic ingestion by Northern Fulmars Fulmarus glacialis in the North Sea and elsewhere. Her 2020 PhD thesis is entitled “Message in a Belly – Plastic Pathways in Fulmars”.
As well as her research on plastic ingestion, Susanne writes: “In addition I join research expeditions to the polar regions, where we study the distribution of seabirds (and marine mammals) and their diet in relation to sea-ice. In my free time, I regularly do Beached Bird Surveys along our coast and visit seabird colonies during holidays”. She is also the Secretary of the Nederlandse Zeevogelgroep (Dutch Seabird Group).
Susanne Kühn studying ingested plastics in her laboratory
She continues: “Many of the environmental challenges that seabirds currently face are extremely complex. Invasive mouse eradication in contrast seems like a very logical straight-forward plan that has shown direct impact and great success on other islands (with obviously very complex logistics etc., no doubt). By donating I can contribute at least a little bit to counteract the mess that we, as humans, have created for seabirds.”
Many marine ornithologists around the world have implicitly endorsed the project via their hectare sponsorships, the most recent being a 30-ha sponsorship by Canadian Professor Ian L. Jones. Susanne Kühn has now joined her fellow seabird ecologists by making her own generous sponsorship, which is particularly encouraging coming from a researcher dedicated to understanding the threats faced by seabirds because of human activities. The Mouse-Free Marion Project is most grateful!
John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 27 August 2024
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The Mouse-Free Marion 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.
