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Save Our Seabirds: George Rocks
George Rocks is a small Nature Reserve east of Mt. William National Park. The area was an important breeding site for at least 10 species of seabirds, including the white-faced storm petrel and common diving petrel. Since the 1980s, two significant invasive species, the black rat and mirror bush, made the islands uninhabitable for several seabird species. In 2021 the Pennicott Foundation supported a program to successfully eradicate black rats, in partnership with Biosecurity Tasmania, the Parks and Wildlife Service, Wildcare group, and Friends of Fisher Island. The George Rocks Nature Reserve is now considered to be rat-free with signs of seabirds returning.
This project also included an upgrade the 70 year old Fisher Island research station, established to study and protect seabirds.
In 1947, Dominic Serventy, one of Australia’s leaders in ornithology began a 30 year study of the short-tailed shearwater on Fisher Island in Franklin Sound, just off the south of Flinders Island, Bass Strait. To support an extended study into the population dynamics and breeding of this long-lived seabird, a hut was built in 1948. Responsibility for the project changed hands in 1978, with Dr. Irenej Skira continuing to follow the lives of each one of the island’s shearwaters, through banding every chick before it fledged. The Fisher Island short tailed shearwater project is now the longest-running continuous bird banding study in the world, and continues today under the charge of the Tasmanian government with help from the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania.
Every past and present short-tailed shearwater on Fisher Island from 1947, has a record updated annually, including information on their hatching date and age, when they first return to breed, egg laying dates, the identity of their partner/s, how many chicks they produce over their life time and in which years, and then which of their chicks eventually return to breed. The oldest bird recorded is 36 years of age. The Fisher Island shearwater study is a truly amazing multi-generational study of a seabird population.
More About This Project
[arve url=”https://vimeo.com/305640613 ” title=”George Rocks Island Restoration” description=”George Rocks Pest Eradication Project Tasmania” upload_date=”11/12/2018″ duration=”90s” /]
It can be difficult to protect seabirds from threats like over-fishing, climate change and plastic pollution. One option we do have to help, is to protect their island homes from pests. Removing introduced predators and weeds from islands is an effective and economical way to help protect seabird populations.
Having seen first-hand the rapid response of seabirds after removal of pests like cats and rats, eradication expert and biologist Dr. Sue Robinson has teamed up with award-winning nature tourism operator Rob Pennicott to rid Tasmania’s seabird islands of pests. They have an ambitious target of ten islands in ten years.
“The pest eradication programs on Macquarie and Tasman Islands clearly show strong positive responses from seabirds as soon as pest animals are gone. Amazingly the birds know that their island is safe again and they quickly occupy new areas to dig burrows. Seeing large numbers of fairy prion fledglings for the first time after cats were removed from Tasman Island, has been one of the highlights of our work”.
During 2008-2011, Sue was involved in the Pennicott Foundation sponsored island restoration of Tasman Island, Tasmania, where feral cats were removed after 100 years of roaming the island. Fairy prions have boomed since then, and greater numbers of short tailed shearwater chicks are able to fledge.
