Above picture: “Marion’s Mysteries”, a watercolour by Kitty Harvill, after a photograph by Danielle Keys

Martin Potgieter is a South African birdwatcher from Johannesburg who participated in the Flock to Marion AGAIN! 2025 voyage on the MSC Musica in late January.  While aboard he visited the Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: The Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project table and made a generous 50-ha sponsorship, which has placed him in the Giant Petrel category on the project’s Honour Roll.

Martin informs MFM News that he much enjoyed the voyage, being able to see albatrosses up close to the ship and catch glimpses of both Marion and Prince Edward Islands during circumnavigating.  He adds “My experiences aboard made it a pleasure to support the saving of Marion’s seabirds from attacks by the island’s introduced mice.”

Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross, Flock 2025; photograph by Holly Parsons

To thank Martin for sponsoring the largest number of hectares on one of the Flock  2025 voyage days, the MFM Project has presented him with an original watercolour entitled “Marion’s Mysteries” that had been painted and donated by the Project’s Artist-in-Residence aboard the voyage, Kitty Harvill.

Took a while. Martin Potgieter’s 50-ha sponsorship required 50 symbolic albatross stickers to be added to this island map; photograph by John Cooper

During the voyage the MFM Project raised 3.7 million Rands from two auctions and the MFM Sponsor a Hectare scheme.  Good to know that supporters such as Martin Potgieter contributed to this sum.

John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project. 06 May 2025

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Marion Island from the MSC Musica during; the Flock 2025 voyage; photograph by Peter Hall

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.