Bringing Back the Aleutians

The people at Alaska Geographic (www.alaskageographic.org) host a lecture series called Wildlife Wednesdays, held at the library once a month and featuring various talks on such topics as Polar Marine Mammals, Climate Change, and Life on Thinning Ice.

The lecture this Wednesday was titled “Bringing Back the Aleutians” and was given by Stacey Buckelew of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Steve Ebbert of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Steve began the talk by telling us a little bit about the organization he works for.

The Alaska Maritime NWR is comprised of over 2,500 islands, roughly 4.9 million acres and 47,300 miles of shoreline, mostly located in the Aleutian chain, the remote Pribilofs, and icebound lands washed by the Chukchi Sea. These islands provide essential habitat for some 40 million seabirds, representing more than 30 species. The refuge’s activities focus on long-term ecosystem monitoring, marine resource research, and invasive species management.

The main topic for the lecture was invasive species. Most people are aware of the rat problems but might be surprised to learn that other mammals are listed as invasive species as well, such as foxes (both arctic and red) as well as ungulates (such as cattle, caribou, and bison).

All of these animals wreck havoc on the native species that live on the islands, either by direct predation or by overgrazing, trampling of nests, or adversely affecting the plant diversity. And since Man introduced them, Man is attempting to eradicate them now. The refuge has several programs in place to address the issues and has seen some considerable success, mainly with the foxes.

Steve then turned the podium over to Stacey to talk about the rats, specifically on Rat Island.

Rat Island is located almost at the very tip of the Aleutian chain, about 1300 miles west of Anchorage, comprised of 6,861 acres of cliffs, mountains, and tundra. In 1780, rats escaped from a sinking Japanese fishing boat and made their way to this island. Nearly 3000 ships a year pass by on the shipping route between Asia and North America, so the rat population on Rat Island, as well as other islands, regularly gets replenished.

As a result, today there are virtually no remaining seabirds, very few land birds, and no native land mammals left.

The Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge partnered up with The Nature Conservancy and Island Conservation (as well as many other concerned groups) with the goal of Eradicating the Rat Infestation of Rat Island.

This was the largest undertaking ever attempted, with many challenges to face: the logistics of getting supplies, gear, and personnel out to the island, all the permitting required to conduct the eradication program, battling the extreme weather out on the chain, protecting the native species while eliminating the invasives, to name just a few.

The method chosen for the eradication was a type of poison, and anticoagulant, mixed into a pellet of grain which was then spread over the entire island, either by helicopter or by hand. They spread it out twice, to be sure to get every rat – and there were definitely rats on the island! Stacey said they did not have an accurate headcount prior to the eradication attempt, but she estimated perhaps tens of thousands of them.

Spreading the poison took place this past summer, but there is a two-year waiting period to be done still, before the eradication project can be declared a success. Scientists and Biologists will closely monitor the island to make sure every rat was taken, and see how the ecology responds.

If you’re interested, more information on the rat infestation problem and the steps being taken to mitigate them can be found at www.stoprats.org