The Centre For Remote Environments The University of Dundee
The Centre for Remote Environments ► ►
CRE CRE is is aa research research and and consultancy consultancy group group based based within within the the University University of of Dundee. Dundee. Created Created to to promote promote environmental environmental management management and and protection, protection, provide provide educational educational resources resources for for the the Island Island of of South South Georgia. Georgia. CRE CRE is is now now committed committed towards towards developing developing aa portfolio portfolio of of research research and and consultancy consultancy projects projects and and works works to to secure secure research research grants grants and and contracts contracts from from research research councils, councils, government government departments departments and and industry. industry.
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CRE CRE works works closely closely with with The The South South Georgia Georgia Heritage Heritage Trust Trust (SGHT), (SGHT), and and the the main main research research themes themes addressed addressed are: are: marine marine and and fisheries; fisheries; environment, environment, ecology ecology and and conservation; conservation; industrial industrial and and cultural cultural heritage, heritage, with with particular particular reference reference to to the the whaling whaling industries; industries; as as well well as as related related technologies technologies within within polar polar and and sub sub polar polar regions. regions.
I am here today to introduce you all to the CRE. We have existed since 2001, although originally we were known as Project Atlantis. We consist of myself, an artists. Paul Shafi who is a software developer and designer, Prof Tony Martin and Ed Simons who is an Industrial Archaeologist.Started out as one the first of the research incubator projects in DJCAD in 2000.
In In depth depth scientific scientific report report Limited Limited public public awareness awareness Important Important Global Global issues issues
Site Site of of World World conservation conservation interest interest Increasing Increasing visitor visitor numbers numbers –– pressure pressure on on breeding breeding colonies colonies
Official Official Government Government Web Web site site
The first project that we undertook was to create the official Government website which covered this environmental management plan and turned it from a rather dry document into something that anyone could read and understand. Fifteen years later we are still responsible for the Government.
British British Antarctic Antarctic Survey Survey Ministry Ministry of of Defence Defence Foreign Foreign and and Commonwealth Commonwealth Office Office South South Georgia Georgia Government Government Southampton Southampton Oceanography Oceanography Centre Centre
Royal Royal Geographic Geographic Society Society
Over the years we have received funding and support from the following organisations, however we realized that in order to undertake a very large and urgent environmental project we needed a lot of funding and we needed it faster that it would take to wait for the outcome of research grants.
Satellite Satellite image image of of South South Georgia Georgia
Just so that you know what I’m talking about here is South Georgia. It’s a wee tiny Island one hundred miles long in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. Difficult to get to and in the early days it was very inhospitable when you did get to it.
We had foresight to set up a Charitable Trust out-with the University called SGHT. Through this Trust and by effective fund raising we were able to raise a lot of money from private donors, sponsorship other charitable organizations in order to undertake the largest habitat restoration project ever undertaken in the world.
The Island is extraordinary and one of the last remaining parts of the world that is relatively unspoiled by human intervention. But it is extremely vulnerable and it does have its problems
But what is clear to me that while I have been visiting the Island over the past fifteen years, within six years the glaciers retreated from this ‌
‌to this
Initially we concentrated on saving this- the beautiful wandering albatross.
Illegal long line fishing vessels were causing massive destruction. Raising awareness of the damage being done had to be brought to attention of the general public and to the Government policy makers and our role as I saw it was to work alongside Birdlife International and what they were advocating we disseminated in visual terms.
The albatross flies for thousands of kilometers and glides on the air thermals, but they are essentially scavenging birds. They will swoop down and take the bait that is attached to the long lines and is intended for the deep sea Patagonian Tooth fish.
With disastrous consequences.
More than 300,000 birds killed per year This is an awful statistic, but – I’ve got a happier ending to this story ( at least for the albatross)
Action against illegals ► ► Regular patrolling by MV MV
Pharos SG ► ► Action against companies that have links to illegal vessels ► ► International cooperation to ‘black-list’ illegal vessels ► ► Traceability of legal catch to provide consumer confidence ► ► Clear penalties and swift action against offenders
The first thing we did was to work with the Government of South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to persuade them to bring in the following restrictions in an attempt to save the Wandering Albatross population.
So what action did the Government take against illegal long line fishing vessels. What is meant by clear penalties and swift action?
First of all catch your illegal long line fishing vessel. The crew are taken off. The captain is put in prison awaiting trial. The crew are sent back to North Korea or wherever. The long liner is towed out to sea‌.
And then this! It’s a bit extreme but it sent a hell of a message to the illegal long liners not to come into these waters.
From a loss of three hundred thousand birds per year we are now aware of less than a hundred being killed by long liners, although admittedly this is still only within the restricted fishing zone. This is a photograph of a pair of Wandering Albatross sitting on a nest with two chicks.
The most pressing problem is the legacy of the whaling Industry on South Georgia. Whaling ceased as an industry in the mid s1960’s
The whaling Industry on South Georgia left a rather horrible legacy in the form of rats. Rats are an invasive species to South Georgia and they are responsible for more than half of all bird extinctions. This is due mostly‌to the rats eating the eggs and/or the newly hatched chicks alive. To get rid of them seemed like an impossible dream
This is the project which has taken much of our time and effort for the past ten years.
Our habitat restoration rapidly become the UK's largest and most challenging privately-run wildlife conservation project and it still is to date . It was a massive undertaking to remove every last rat from South Georgia.
The Island is a hundred miles long and the rats on the coasts of South Georgia threatened the extinction of some of our most treasured birds.These are the areas that had rats and where we had to target.
We did it by lacing the island with rat poison pellets
And we did this work phase by phase utilizing the fact that South Georgia can be sectioned off into sections by the glaciers which prevent the rats from spreading.
We had three helicopters in operation during the austral summer over a period of six years.
Unfortunately more often than not the weather is like this on South Georgia.
However I can report that our team of scientists led by Professor Tony Martin and our environmentalists have, as far as we are aware, successfully cleared all of the rats from South Georgia
This is the next project. In the foreground you can see King Edward Point and the only place that the ships and in particular the Cruise ships can dock. In the back ground you can see Grytviken - one of the five remaining whaling stations.
What do you do about post industrial sites in very vulnerable parts of the planet?
This is something that I have been concerned with since I first set foot on South Georgia fifteen years ago.
This is an artists impression To adapt the tanks And make them into an international centres for scientific research
The Discovery Investigations.
It’s a wild dream, but I know now from experience - unless you make the impossible possible …. it just doesn’t happen.