Above picture: Success!

The Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: The Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project is continually looking for new and exciting ways to raise the necessary funds required to eradicate Marion Island’s albatross-killing mice.  By way of online committee meetings, WhatsApp messaging and face-to-face conversations fund-raising ideas are regularly discussed by the project team and, if adopted, put into place.

Last year, Project Manager, Anton Wolfaardt, took on an arduous mountain trail run and raised funds via an online appeal that realised 103 ha for the project.  In January this year the whole project team went to sea on the second Flock to Marion voyage, raising 3.7 million Rands by holding two auctions and running a dawn-to-dusk Sponsor a Hectare desk over the five full days of the trip.  We followed up this success with entering a 27-strong Mouse-Free Marion Cycling Team into the world’s largest timed bike race around the Cape Peninsula, surpassing the team’s R109 000 target and ending up sponsoring 131 hectares.

The MFM Project team is pleased to announce that its latest fund-raising effort has been an undoubted success, like those that have gone before.  World Albatross Day takes place every year on 19 June.  To mark the day, commencing on 1 June and running for as long as funds lasted, all donations (including hectare sponsorships) received during the month were doubled through the generous support of Charlie Pascoe, a former Marion Island over-winterer (M43, 1986/87) now residing in Australia, and the seabird guiding company Cape Town Pelagics.

Mark Tasker undertaking pre-eradication research at South Georgia. Photograph: Anton Wolfaardt

As early as 13 June, 31 donors had matched the sums contributed by Charlie Pascoe and Cape Town Pelagics, resulting in 220 hectares being sponsored.  The campaign got off to a quick start with five hectares donated on day one.  The largest donation of 25 ha was made by Scotland’s Mark Tasker; he has thus been credited with 50 ha.  This adds to the 25 ha he previously sponsored in 2021, moving him, with a new total of 75 ha, into the “Giant Petrel” category on the MFM Honour Roll.

Ethan Shapiro

The second-largest donation, of 12 ha, came from Ethan Shapiro of Climate Change Realty, Boulder, Colorado, USA.  His website says “We donate 50% of our company profits to 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations and support other businesses doing similar work.  Create Change Realty helps home buyers and sellers complete their real estate transactions in the least amount of time with the least amount of stress possible, generating thousands of dollars to support non-profits in the process.”  MFM Project supporter Holly Parsons had nominated the MFM Project to Ethan Shapiro, when making her own real estate transaction.  Ethan had previously sponsored 15 ha, so his matched 24 ha brings his overall total to 39 ha, placing him in the honour roll’s “Grey Petrel” category.

What’s next? The MFM Project will have a fund-raising stand at the Global Birdfair in the UK this month.  We are hoping to meet some generous sponsors!

Thank you to everyone, including Charlie Pascoe and Cape Town Pelagics, who supported our World Albatross Day matching donations campaign.  Your incredible generosity ensured that we reached our target of matching funds in record time.  Please continue to support us.  Every hectare sponsored and donation received takes us one step closer to realising a mouse-free Marion Island.

 

John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project. 08 July 2025

*******************************************************************************************************

A Salvin’s Prion skims for plankton, digital art by Pat Latas of Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for the Mouse-Free Marion Project

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.