“Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds – the Conservation Campaign for Marion Island” has been selected as a finalist in the Documentaries and TV Programmes: Wildlife and Conservation thematic category by the Jury of the International Tourism Film Festival Africa 2024. The festival in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa, will be held over five days in June 2024, with a gala dinner when the winners will be announced and their awards presented on 14 June, to be followed by public screenings the following day.
The film was produced in 2023 for the Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project by Culture Communications Collective, a UK-based media agency. It is narrated by South African singer Zolani Mahola “The One Who Sings” and features evocative video footage taken on Marion Island by researchers Ben Dilley, David Hedding, Janine and Stefan Schoombie and Otto Whitehead. In the 6 m 45 s film Dr Anton Wolfaardt, MFM Project Manager, describes the plan to eradicate the island’s introduced House Mice. Peter Harrison MBE, MFM Patron, Dr Mavuso Msimang, Chairperson of the MFM Not for Profit Company Board, and Her Imperial Highness The Princess Takamado, Honorary President of BirdLife International, all call for international support for the project.
The MFM Project team is both excited and more than a little proud that a film about Marion Island and its conservation, including the necessity to eradicate its albatross-killing mice, has been selected as a finalist for an international award. We can hardly wait until June to be present at the awards ceremony!
Marion Island, along with neighbouring Prince Edward Island is a Special Nature Reserve, affording it the highest level of protection under South African law. Under the provisions of its reserve status, and the Prince Edward Islands Management Plan, tourism activity ashore is precluded, although tourist vessels occasionally approach the islands.
John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 30 April 2024
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All of the four breeding albatross on Marion Island, including these Light-mantled Albatrosses, are at risk to mice; photograph and poster design by Michelle Risi
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.
