Photo: Christopher Jones, Gough Island Restoration Project Facebook Page
WITH IAN MACKINTOSH
Gough Island in the South Atlantic, about 1 500 miles from Cape Town, was declared a World Heritage Site in 1995 and received Important Bird Area Status in 2013. It is a volcanic island, part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
According to UNESCO: “Gough and Inaccessible Islands are two extraordinary uninhabited oceanic islands that have remained relatively undisturbed and are therefore of special conservation significance. Gough Island is one of the largest cool-temperate oceanic islands in the world that remains close to pristine, having been spared most introductions of invasive species that have decimated unique island biodiversity elsewhere. While Inaccessible Island is smaller, it is of no lesser significance, housing a number of species endemic to this tiny speck in the South Atlantic Ocean.
The spectacular cliffs of each island, towering above the ocean, host some of the most important seabird colonies in the world. These include albatrosses, petrels, and penguins, reliant on the rich marine life surrounding them. Gough Island is home to two endemic species of land birds as well as twelve endemic plant species. Inaccessible Island also boasts three endemic subspecies and one endemic species of land bird – the Inaccessible Rail, which is the smallest flightless bird in the world –, and some eight endemic plant species. This island is also the only place where the Spectacled Petrel breeds, while the Atlantic Petrel and the Tristan Albatross are almost entirely restricted to breeding on Gough. The islands’ undisturbed nature makes them particularly valuable for biological research.”
During the 19th century, ordinary house mice were accidentally introduced to Gough island by sailors. As a means to survive on the island, the mice developed some peculiar and never-before-seen hunting habits, including openly attacking and eating chicks and even adult birds right on their nests, essentially devouring them alive!
Not only did the mice subsequently evolve to grow at least 50% larger than house mice found on mainland Great Britain, their presence and relentless feeding habits quickly started impacting the already fragile status of some of the birds breeding there, more particularly the critically endangered Tristan Albatross and MacGillivray’s Prion. With surveys estimating that less than 20% of chicks hatched alive survived past the mice attacks to fledge, urgent intervention was needed.
In 2021, while COVID restrictions still governed most people’s movements, the very impressive SV Urchin, who some of us met during the 2022 West Coast Cruise, set off on a mission to help turn the situation on Gough Island around and deliver much needed assistance in the eradication program to rid the island of the invasive and highly destructive mice.
Our very own former club commodore, Ian Mackintosh, was the co-skipper on the mission and on Monday, 10 February 2025, he enthralled a packed clubhouse with his tale of conservation and Southern Atlantic sailing for our February Sailors’ Scuttlebutt.
Setting off from Cape Town smack in the middle of COVID-19 restrictions, the team first had to spend two weeks in solitary quarantine before being escorted by officials in hazmat suits, not being allowed to disembark from their vehicles while exiting customs and border control, only to spend another two weeks alone on board SV Urchin on their journey South-West.
But the journey did not get any better once they left the calm waters of Cape Town… Even a hardy and well-travelled sailor such as Ian quickly learnt what it feels like to lose all but your entire gastrointestinal tract in a 36-hour bout of severe seasickness!
Once they finally reached Tristan island, the occupants of yacht Urchin spent some time exploring the island community of about 200 all sharing the same 8 surnames, before picking up some more crew and a few tonnes of supplies to take with them to Gough island.
But getting crew and carriage onto Gough island is a different story altogether… There is no harbour and no beach to motor out to. Oh no! Everything, including people, arriving at the island has to be hoisted up a cliffside via a large pully system!
Loading several tonnes of goods onto a rubber duck bit by bit, motoring it across from the bobbing Urchin to the rocky shore, loading it onto the pully system, then hoisting it high up the cliff face where it gets unloaded again, not only takes time, but a lot of energy and patience.
The mission itself was carried out by very skilful helicopter pilots making use of helicopters that were especially transported to the island via SA Agulhas II, dropping large quantities of rodenticide all over the island, including the very rocky mountains and valleys and crags and cliffs. Luckily (or perhaps unluckily for the island and its endangered bird population) there are no natural predators consuming mice present on the island, which means that the teams did not have to be concerned about poisoned mice being eaten. However, they did have to take care to ensure that two specific land bird species, namely the Gough Moorhen and the Gough Bunting, do not ingest the bait, with the only way to do so being to capture as many birds as they could in the weeks leading up to the baiting, and keeping them in large, purpose-built aviaries until several weeks after the baiting when experts believed it safe enough to release the birds again.
Whilst some might say that rodenticide is an extreme measure, it is common cause that research teams have debated every possible method of bringing the mice population under control and no other effective and safe measure was considered feasible.
Sadly, only a few years after the 2021 mass baiting, increasing numbers of mice have once again been spotted on the island and new talks are underway to determine effective ways of addressing the problem.
Ian was lucky to have taken part in this excursion and his talk was certainly one to remember for a long time! We are so grateful that he has agreed to share his experience with us and wholeheartedly support his hopes of being able to accompany the vessel once more in future on another mission to save our biodiversity.
Well done and thank you!
Photos obtained from the Gough Island Restoration Project Facebook Page. Copyright belongs to the photographers, some of which are named on the photos.