All gear and people including 100,000 pounds of bait had to be moved to Rat Island from refuge headquarters 1200 miles away. Photograher: Steve Ebbert

Bait pellets were hand loaded into broadcast buckets, similar to giant fertilizer spreaders, and dropped on the 6,861 acre island. Photographer: Steve Ebbert/USFWS

17 people were prepared to camp on the island for 45 days to complete the project while an equal number bunked on the M/V Tiglax anchored off-shore. Instead the project was completed in little more than a week. Photographer: Steve Ebbert/USFWS

Executive Summary Of Accomplishment With the rare Aleutian sun shining down, an international team of experts swept over Rat Island in a flurry of activity to rid the island of rats.  In a project that captured the imagination of people nationwide, Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and partners The Nature Conservancy and Island Conservation completed the first step of restoring a refuge island by covering Rat Island with rodenticide in early October.  The challenge of eradicating every rat from a big (6,861 acres), remote (1300 miles west of Anchorage), rugged, storm-swept Aleutian island required complex logistics for two ships, two helicopters and a field crew of  30.  But meticulous planning, training, field trials, experienced partners, and exceptional weather saw the project come off flawlessly in less than half the anticipated time. Apparently, even Murphy was on holiday as no mechanical malfunctions arose. While success can’t be assured until monitoring in 2009 and 2010 determines if any rats survived,  it is likely that all died--changing forever the nature and perhaps the name of Rat Island.  Noted Refuge Manager Greg Siekaniec: “It’s a bit overwhelming to plan for five years, set aside 45 days for the operation, and then realize you completed it in 10 days of blue skies and light winds without mishap or malfunction – what a partnership.” Norway rats first invaded Rat Island from a shipwreck in the 1780’s.  Since then other shipwrecks and WWII spread rats to a dozen major refuge islands and many Alaskan ports.  Rats are tough on native ecosystems, particularly seabirds for which the refuge and the Aleutians are famous.  Rats eat eggs, chicks and even adult birds as well as intertidal organisms, invertebrates and native plants.  Prior to rats, there were no land mammals in the western Aleutians so birds had not evolved strategies for protecting themselves.  There are few seabirds on Rat Island today.  Helicopter application of rodenticide with buckets and supplemental hand baiting to cover every single rat territory is a technique used widely around the world but never in Alaska where vast distances, cold climate and wild weather posed unique logistical  challenges.  People, gear, helicopters and bait had to reach uninhabited Rat Island 1200 miles west of refuge headquarters.  Partners used the refuge ship M/V Tiglax and a hired transport vessel while helicopters flew to the site by hopscotching between islands and, when done, raced back ahead of a notorious Bering Sea storm. Rat Island is the third largest of 250 islands world-wide where rats have been eradicated.  The additional challenge of protecting a small rookery of endangered Steller sea lions was accomplished when New Zealand helicopter pilots shared their technique for gently moving the animals off the rocks prior to bait application to avoid spooking and stampeding.   The refuge and its partners took a chance working during the typically stormy fall season specifically to avoid disturbing young sea lion pups and most migratory birds. In a little over a week, 100,000 pounds of bait were distributed over the island by hand-loading the bait into broadcast buckets (like giant fertilizer spreaders), hooking them to helicopters and then dispersing the bait along grid lines set by GPS.  If GPS showed a helicopter deviated from its planned flight line, “skips” were filled in with dribble buckets.  Hand baiters worked around ponds and sensitive areas.  The bait was brodificoum encased in grain, highly toxic to rats and approved by EPA for conservation purposes. Alaska Maritime Refuge and its partners will monitor recovery of Rat Island’s ecosystem and birds after 225 years of rat damage and evaluate whether to augment the recovery by reintroducing native birds.  The partners are also considering eradication efforts for other rat-infested refuge islands.  To follow this project visit: www.seabirdrestoration.org.