A bearded Prince Phillip, in Royal Naval uniform as an Admiral of the Fleet, steers while approaching the landing on Tristan da Cunha on 17 January 1957, a day after going ashore on Gough Island

The passing of Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh on 9 April is being marked around the world.  With reminisces appearing in news media of his many activities over so many years, one that is unlikely to come to the fore is his visit to the United Kingdom’s Gough Island in the South Atlantic.

An aerial view of Gough Island looking north. The Glen is on the east coast on the right, the current meteorological station is visible on the left

Travelling on the Royal Yacht Britannia, on his way to Tristan da Cunha Prince Phillip went ashore on 16 January 1957 for a few hours at The Glen – the site of the original meteorological station.  There he met both Northern Rockhopper Penguins Eudyptes moselyi and J.J. van der Merwe, Leader of the South African weather team.  On the island he was filmed in black and white by Pathe newsreels working his way across the rounded (and slippery from personal experience) rocks in the stream that debouches into the sea at The Glen.  A keen photographer, the Duke produced a book “Birds from Britannia” illustrating seabirds he had encountered on his voyage, including Gough’s penguins.

His experience ashore on what has been more than once referred to as the one of the most important seabird islands in the world led to him writing the foreword to “Mountains in the Sea” the story of the Gough Island Scientific Survey of 1955/56.  His foreword ends “If every man has to face his Everest some time during his life, I strongly recommend him to get his Gough Island in first.  There is no better preparation”.  A sentiment agreed to by ACAP’s Information Officer who has done his own Everest preparation stomping over the mountainous island on 18 visits over the years. 

Photographs by Michelle Risi

Gough Island is home to all but a handful of pairs of the Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena, threatened ashore by introduced House Mice Mus musculus that attack and kill its chicks.  It is hoped the mice’s days are numbered as the Gough Island Restoration Programme ramps up to an eradication attempt in a few months’ time.  Surely, Prince Phillip, a conservationist of note, would have been interested in hearing the outcome of the eradication 64 years after his own visit.  In Gough House, the main building of the island’s current weather station, has long hung a signed official portrait of the Prince, so in one way he will be “on site” to witness the events this austral winter.

A World Albatross Day infographic for the Tristan Albatross

 With grateful thanks to Michelle Risi & Kim Stevens on Gough Island.

References:

His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh. 1962.  Birds from Britannia.  London: Longmans, Green.  62 pp.

Holdgate, M. 1958.  Mountains in the Sea.  The Story of the Gough Island Expedition.  London: Macmillan.  222 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 11 April 2021

The S.A. Agulhas II departs from Cape Town on a journey south, photograph by Sydney Cullis

On 09 April South Africa’s Antarctic research and supply ship, the S.A. Agulhas II left Cape Town to undertake its annual relief voyage to Marion Island, with Anton Wolfaardt, the Mouse-Free Marion Project Manager, aboard.  Anton is participating in the five-week voyage to gain a better understanding of the current logistical and management attributes and dynamics of the island and its infrastructure, as well as of the S.A Agulhas II, itself, so that these can be incorporated into the planning for the House Mouse eradication project, scheduled for the austral winter of 2023.

Anton pauses with a Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena chick during a survey for mouse attacks on Gough Island in 2009, photograph by Norman Glass

Anton's journey as a seabird and marine conservation scientist and practitioner started at Marion Island more than 25 years ago.  From 1994-1995, he was a member of the 51st Marion Island overwintering team, in which capacity he worked as a seabird field researcher.  Anton reports that the year spent on Marion Island was a profound experience that inspired him to pursue other opportunities in the field of seabird and island conservation, and which has shaped his career ever since.

A scalped Vulnerable Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans chick is attacked by a mouse at night on Marion Island, photograph by Stefan Schoombie

Anton tells ACAP Latest News that he is delighted and honoured to have been appointed as the Mouse-Free Marion Project Manager, saying he “is greatly looking forward to visiting Marion Island again after all these years, and to being part of this important conservation endeavour to help restore the island, reclaiming it for the globally important seabirds and other wildlife that call it home”.  Bon voyage!

With thanks to Anton Wolfaardt.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 10 April 2021

Thanks Grandad!  Rosie Brothers proudly holds her “Sponsor a Hectare” certificate of appreciation received for her 10th birthday from the Mouse-Free Marion Project

At the last meeting of Albatross and Petrel Agreement’s Population and Conservation Working Group (PaCSWG5), held near two years ago in Florianópolis, Brazil, South Africa reported on progress with plans to eradicate the introduced albatross-killing House Mice Mus musculus on its sub-Antarctic Marion Island.  COVID-19 then got in the way with planning over the course of 2020 but now it’s all go again with a Mouse-Free Marion Project Manager, Anton Wolfaardt, appointed earlier this year, a revitalized sponsorship campaign and the intention to undertake the eradication during the austral winter of 2023.

Immediately following South Africa’s report in Brazil, ACAP Seabird Bycatch Working Group expert member Nigel Brothers of Australia spontaneously contributed to the M-FM’s crowd-funding “Sponsor a Hectare” initiative, entrusting ACAP’s Information Officer to carry the donation back to his home in Cape Town.  Now Nigel and his partner Catherine Bone have sponsored a second hectare of Marion Island’s 29 000 ha, this time in the name of his granddaughter, Rosie Brothers, on the occasion of her 10th birthday last month.  Nigel writes to ACAP Latest News: “we think a sponsorship gift is a fabulous idea as clearly evident in Rosie’s thrilled look of pride.”

Nigel Brothers (left) is thanked by ACAP's Information Officer for his Mouse-Free Marion sponsorship made at the 2019 ACAP meeting in Brazil

Nigel Brothers has worked on albatross conservation for a number of decades, including initiating and continuing for 20 years a study of the then little-known Australian endemic Shy Albatross Thalassarche cauta on Albatross Island, a study which continues to this day by others.  From his early days surveying and studying seabirds on Macquarie Island and on the many islands around the coast of Tasmania, he moved to address the problem of seabird bycatch by longline vessels, a hitherto overlooked threat.  It is fair to say that his 1991 paper in the journal Biological Conservation was the first to alert the scientific and conservation communities to the scale of the problem.  This has led to Nigel writing several handbooks that describe how longline fishers can reduce their seabird bycatch.  He has been actively involved with working groups and allied bodies of such international organizations as the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the various Regional Fisheries Management Organizations that deal with tunas (t-RFMOs) and of course ACAP itself.  His support of an eradication effort that, if successful, will save many albatross chicks from grisly deaths on Marion is thus particularly welcomed.

Eaten alive: a Grey-headed Albatross chick is attacked by a mouse at night on Marion Island; photograph from the FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town

Nigel is not the only ACAP stalwart who has sponsored hectares, witness the recent contribution by the United Kingdom’s Mark Tasker.  Further sponsorships by other members of the ACAP community will surely be well received by Mouse-Free Marion!

Selected References:

Brothers, N. 1991.  Albatross mortality and associated bait loss in the Japanese longline fishery in the Southern Ocean.  Biological Conservation  55: 255-268.

Brothers, N. & Robertson, G. 1996.  Fish the Sea, not the Sky.  How to avoid by-catch of seabirds when fishing with Bottom Long-lines.  Hobart: Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.  46 pp.

Brothers, N.P., Cooper, J. & Løkkeborg, S. 1999.  The incidental catch of seabirds by longline fisheries: worldwide review and technical guidelines for mitigation.  FAO Fisheries Circular 937: 1-100.

Brothers, N., Pemberton, D., Pryor, H. & Halley, V. 2001.  Tasmania’s Offshore Islands: Seabirds and other Natural Features.  Hobart: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.  643 pp.

Note: photographs of minors in ACAP Latest News are posted with the express approval of their parents or guardians.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 09 April 2021

The Northern Giant Petrel after release at sea, photograph by Andy Cunningham

A recently fledged Northern Giant Petrel Macronectes halli (Least Concern) was found “in a paddock” in Washdyke, an industrial suburb north of Timaru, South Island, New Zealand early in the evening on 8 March. After overnight care, it was transferred next day to the Wildlife Hospital - Dunedin, where it was found to be in an “emaciated and weak state, similar to that of birds battered in a storm”.

The young bird showed signs of renal failure and blood tests confirmed it was severely anaemic.  However, following regurgitation of “chunks of plastic” the bird has showed signs of recovery, feeding on its own (see video) and swimming in a rehabilitation pool (video). 

Following health assessments (“repeat tests all came back normal and he was beautiful and waterproof and had gained some good weight eating lots of salmon”) the giant petrel was successfully released at sea on 1 April by Wildlife Vet Nurse, Emily Brewer aboard the mv Sootychaser during a wildlife cruise of Dunedin's Port to Port Wildlife Cruises out of Otago Harbour and past Taiaroa Head to the open sea (see video).

Read more here and view a video clip of a similar giant petrel release from the wildlife hospital by the Sootychaser last November.  These are not the first Northern Giant Petrels the hospital has treated.  Last year during July a bird brought the hospital with an injured wing was released on a beach (click here).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 08 April 2021