Above picture: Ready to fly out.  Metal crates holding dismantled materials from Marion Island’s old base are neatly stacked on the helicopter-landing platform of the new base; photograph by Chris Jones

Rodent eradication by dispersing aerial rodenticide-laced bait on islands requires every single animal to feed from at least one cereal pellet – there can be no exceptions.  As well as natural features such as caves and lava tunnels, the Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project has identified artificial structures on the island as places where the invasive House Mice could escape coming in contact with the bait.  For this reason, the project’s draft operational plan makes provision for placing baits inside and beneath buildings of the base above Transvaal Cove, as well as at the nine field huts located around the island.

The successful dismantling of the decommissioned old base and readying it for removal from the island this summer is thus to be greatly welcomed.  The old base had been lying unused since the new base was occupied in 2011 and was deteriorating into a derelict state.

Before removal: the scattered silver and white buildings of Marion Island’s old base contrast with the more compact new orange base above; photograph by Peter Ryan

The South African Departments of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) and of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) sent a combined team on South Africa’s Antarctic research and supply vessel, the S.A. Agulhas II, to the island in mid-November 2023.  The team stayed for three months until mid-February 2024.  An initial team of around 50 persons included expert representatives from African Marine Solutions (AMSOL) and Scheltema (an asbestos removal company).  After a week ashore and following the retrieval of members of the Prince Edward Islands 2023 Expedition, half the base-removal team returned to Cape Town.  This left a team of 21 DPWI and three DFFE members to continue the work, supported by a chef from AMSOL.  All but four or five buildings were dismantled and packed up ready for removal come the annual relief voyage to the island in April 2024.

The buildings retained include the old Mammal Research Laboratory, now the oldest building on the island and thus of some historical significance, a concrete store for flammable items such as oil, greases and paint, and the old power shack which is to be kept as an emergency backup.  The team cleverly constructed metal crates out of dismantled roofing and wall panels to store smaller items.  It is reported that care was taken to avoid wind-blown litter, which can be an issue on Marion Island, with regular clean-ups of the area taking place to collect smaller items and debris.  The long-abandoned hydroelectric building on the Van den Boogaard River is reported to have been left untouched and so the removal of its deteriorating wood and metal superstructure remains a task for the future.

Awaiting dismantling. Some of the buildings of the old Marion base. The tall structure on the left is the old power shack that will remain; photograph by Zafar Monier

Keith Springer, MFM Operations Manager has expressed his approval of the dismantling of the old base: “This has been a welcome initiative by DFFE in conjunction with DPWI, and it is a credit to the team who undertook the hard work on the island.  Removal of the old base will be a huge advantage when the mouse eradication on Marion Island gets underway.  The old base’s many separate buildings contained numerous rooms, cupboards and wall spaces that provided ideal mouse habitat, and all of these would have had to be baited using bait trays.  Access to all these spaces would have been time-consuming and in some cases, difficult; so removing the old base infrastructure simplifies the baiting requirements for existing buildings, including the new base and the field huts, enormously.”

Where once there were living quarters, stacked material awaits flying out. The old Mammal Research Laboratory on the rise in the distance, built in the 1950s as a power shack on solid rock, is destined to remain; photograph by Michelle Risi

Following what from all accounts was a most successful exercise, the dismantling team docked in Cape Town on 20 February, having been collected by the S.A. Agulhas II on its return from Antarctica.

Read an article on the dismantling project in the January 2024 issue of The Wanderer, the Marion Team’s Newsletter.

John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 27 February 2024

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Light-mantled Albatrosses incubate on Marion Island; photograph by 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.