Phase 1 Summary Report

Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

REINDEER ERADICATION PROJECT – PHASE 1 SUMMARY REPORT

1. Introduction South Georgia today is a wildlife haven but has a history of exploitation. The Government of South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands (GSGSSI) is committed to safeguarding and restoring the native species, habitats and landscape features of the Island. The principles of environmental protection and sustainable ecosystem management are enshrined within its laws and policies, which include measures to protect against invasive and non-native species that threaten the natural environment.

Reindeer were introduced by Norwegian whalers in order to provide a familiar food source and to vary an otherwise fairly limited diet. The reindeer were also a reminder of home, and hunting them provided a recreational activity. Reindeer were introduced to two discreet areas of South Georgia on three occasions between 1909 and 1925. Combined, the areas occupied by reindeer equate to the largest ice free part of the Island, and consequently support a diverse flora.

Reindeer are having a detrimental impact on South Georgia’s native flora through trampling and overgrazing of indigenous plants, particularly coastal tussac, leading to soil erosion and increased distribution of more resistant, invasive plants. In places, this has changed the structure of the vegetation and soils to the extent that native seabirds can no longer nest there. Following stakeholder consultation, in 2010 GSGSSI made the decision to remove reindeer from the Island.

Following the recommendations of an advisory group on reindeer management methodology, the decision was taken to investigate the possibility of using a combination of herding and ground shooting to eradicate reindeer from South Georgia. These two methods were thought to provide the best balance between the need to eradicate the reindeer in an efficient and humane manner, to remove the bulk of carcasses and to allow recovery of commercially viable products.

The eradication was carried out in association with the Norwegian Nature Inspectorate (SNO) who have considerable experience in reindeer management. As herding and corralling was an untested eradication method, to assess the feasibility on South Georgia, a reconnaissance trip was conducted between 1st and 31st January 2012. During the reconnaissance two members of SNO and one GSGSSI staff visited both of the areas with reindeer and concluded that it would be feasible to herd the majority of reindeer into a central corral where they could be slaughtered and butchered under veterinary supervision. Trained marksmen would shoot reindeer occupying inaccessible outlying areas.

1 In January and February 2013, the first phase of the eradication was completed, with just over 1,900 reindeer being eradicated from the Busen area (Figure 1); one of the two peninsulas which are occupied by the reindeer. The eradication of the second herd, on the Barff Peninsula, is planned for early 2014.

Figure 1. The Busen area

This report gives an overview of operations in the Busen area and highlights the main lessons learned that will inform the planning of phase 2 of operations.

2. Overview of field operations The eradication team consisted of ten Sami reindeer herders, four marksmen, four science assistants, a vet, a doctor and two project management staff.

The field team arrived on South Georgia in two waves. The first group, which consisted of the project management staff, two marksmen, a doctor, two science support workers and four herders arrived on South Georgia in early January 2013. A second group, consisting of the remaining six herders, two marksman and two science assistants arrived in mid-January.

Once they had arrived on South Georgia and completed safety briefings and a general orientation, the first group were tasked with offloading cargo and

2 constructing the fencing in the corral area. The bulk of materials needed for the fence construction in the corral area were offloaded from the Pharos SG using a seatruck over the course of two days (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Offloading rolls of fencing from the seatruck. Photo CE Kilander.

Once the fencing material was offloaded, the first team of marksmen were deployed to begin shooting in outlying areas (see below) and the remaining staff began work constructing the fences. The majority of the fencing work was completed within a week.

The fence building in the main corral area went smoothly with soft ground making putting in the posts relatively easy (Figure 3). Moving the rolls of fencing material around the site was challenging if quad-bike access was not possible (Figure 4). In areas where quad-bike access was available a custom-made fence rolling/unrolling device was used which saved some time (Figure 5). Elsewhere fence rolls were unrolled by hand.

Figure 3. Inserting the posts in the main corral area. Photo CE Kilander.

Figure 4. Unrolling wire mesh by hand up a steep hill. Photo CE Kilander.

Figure 5. Unrolling wire mesh with the aid of a quad bike and trailer. Photo AM Wilson.

Temporary fences were constructed to the east of the Olsen Valley, to the north of Husvik and between Tønsberg and Stromness (Figure 6). These fences were typically less substantial and contained large ‘gates’ that would allow reindeer to pass though during herding. Construction of these fences was almost exclusively by hand and in some cases required posts to be carried several hundred metres up scree slopes.

Figure 6. Temporary to the east of the Olsen Valley. Photo CE Kilander.

Herding operations Large numbers of people were required to move deer across some of the more open passes in the Busen area, therefore the main herding operation could only commence once the second group of herders had arrived. Herding was completed over a period of approximately two weeks (Figure 7).

The reindeer on South Georgia are not accustomed to humans and at times were quite skittish. This meant that in places, several attempts were needed to move reindeer from one valley to the next.

Herding was primarily the responsibility of the Sami herders but when science assistants were not engaged in other work, they helped. The Sami had a good understanding of reindeer behaviour and the science assistants typically were physically fit and had good local knowledge. Co-incidentally, many of the science assistants had experience gathering animals such as sheep, cattle and deer elsewhere. Typically there were between 6 and 16 personnel involved in the herding operation at any one time.

Figure 7. Reindeer being herded from Husvik. Photo S Crimmin.

6 Approximate numbers of animals herded from each area are as follows:

Leith Harbour 200 Stromness 60 Fortuna east*† 200 Jason Harbour 200 Carlita/Olsen Valley 200 Husvik Harbour† 250

*A decision was made not to herd reindeer from the west side of Fortuna Bay as this would entail crossing a substantial river, which was considerably higher than it had been in the previous year and would present a hazard to both reindeer and people. † 100 animals from Fortuna and 100 animals from Husvik were herded but escaped from the corral area before they could be slaughtered.

Although there was some success in bringing animals over from Jason Harbour, Leith and the Olsen Valley moving animals over from Fortuna Bay and Framnaes Point proved to be problematic. In part this may have been because of the slightly unpredictable behavior of the reindeer but a contributory factor may also have been of the very physical nature of the work that was beyond the fitness levels of many of the herders.

In the Olsen Valley and Husvik area quad-bikes were used to assist in the herding of animals. While the quad-bikes were useful in very open areas in many cases, reindeer reacted badly to their presence and this undoubtedly increased the stress of the herding operations considerably. Quad-bikes also caused damage to vegetation that may take several years to recover.

Overall, while it is clear that a herding technique can gather a large number of animals into a corral, it is only appropriate to use over relatively short distances and where the terrain is simple (i.e. few ‘pinch’ points such as passes or steep scree slopes).

Slaughter and butchering Once reindeer had been gathered into the central corral area near Tønsberg Point groups of approximately 100 were moved into a race and inner corral, from where animals were fed into a catching pen in groups of approximately 40 animals. Individual animals were then stunned with a captive bolt gun and bled, the carcasses were loaded onto the sea truck and taken on board a processing vessel (Figure 8). Depending on the weight of the carcass between 15 and 20 animals could be

7 transported by the seatruck at any one time. A complete turn around of the seatruck (loading carcasses on shore, offload on processing vessel and return to shore) would take in the region of 30-40 minutes. Limited space on the processing vessel restricted the maximum number of reindeer slaughtered in any one day to 150 animals.

On the whole, the slaughter went well and apart from days when weather prevented the seatruck from operating, the shore side team were able to supply the processing vessel with the maximum number of carcasses they were able to handle each day.

Figure 8. Reindeer carcasses being loaded on board the seatruck. Photo CE Kilander.

Once slaughtered animals were brought on board the processing vessel they were de-hided, eviscerated and left to hang on the trawl deck until they had reached ambient temperature (Figure 9). At this point they were lowered into a chilled hold with an ambient temperature of between5 and 9˚C. Depending on the age of the animal, carcasses were hung between 1 and 4 days to tenderise. When animals had been sufficiently tenderised they were brought back onto the main deck and processed in a dedicated butchery container (Figure 10). To insure longevity, product was vacuum packed prior to being boxed and frozen.

Figure 9. De-hided and eviscerated carcasses hanging on deck . Photo S Crimmin.

Figure 10. Meat being processed in the butchery container. Photo S Crimmin.

In total, 929 animals were processed in this way and approximately 7,500 kg of meat products were recovered.

Shooting operations The aims of the shooting operation were to remove animals from areas where herding was not possible and sweep through the areas to mop up stragglers once herding operations were complete (Figure 11).

Figure 11. A shooter looking for reindeer Carlita Bay. Photo CE Kilander.

In total, 1,012 animals were shot in the Busen area (Figure 12). Numbers of animals shot in each area are as follows:

Allen Bay/ The Crutch 147 Enten Bay 71 Jason Harbour 29 Fortuna West 228 Fortuna East 137 Hercules Bay /Leith 88 Stromness 81 Tønsberg 46 Carlita/Olsen Valley/Husvik 185

Figure 12. Red circles indicate the position of all reindeer that were shot in the Busen area. Note that some points represent more than one carcass

Shooting on the Busen took less time than anticipated, which enabled shooters to be deployed on the Barff Peninsula to reduce the population there prior to full-scale eradication in 2014. In total, 1,555 reindeer were shot on the Barff Peninsula

To ensure the safety of all involved with the shooting operation and all those in the vicinity, strict firearms handling procedures were followed at all times. Live fire operations covered different areas at different times, making good communication between the firearms safety officer, government representative and all vessels in the area essential. To facilitate this, for each live fire operation a firearms safety plan was completed and a closed area was delimited. The Government Officers communicated the position and duration of closed areas to all vessels in the area. On the whole this procedure worked well, although on one occasion cruise ships were precluded from visiting their first choice landing site because of shooting operations. In general, a balance was maintained and where possible requests from cruise ships to visit specific sites (i.e. Shackleton walk) were accommodated.

11 Carcass removal The South Georgia Heritage Trust’s (SGHT) rat eradication project was due to commence on the Busen area immediately after the completion of phase 1 of the reindeer eradication project. Following consultation with eradication experts, SGHT deemed that leaving reindeer carcasses in situ posed a threat to the success of the rat eradication, as rats could feed on carrion in preference to poisoned bait. To help facilitate the rat eradication, every effort was made to remove carcasses of reindeer that had been shot before the start of bait spreading. This was predominantly done by hand with quad-bikes being used in the Husvik, Stromness and Fortuna areas. Wherever possible, animals were dragged to the intertidal zone where wave action and scavenging birds quickly broke down carcasses. Where animals had been shot a long way inland, they were dragged to the nearest permanent water body and sunk by placing stones in their chest cavity.

Science sampling During the planning phase of the project the scientific community was approached with an offer of assistance in conducting reindeer related research. Several groups came forward with proposals for reindeer related research and every effort was made to accommodate request. The main areas of research were pathogen diversity, vigilance and flight-fright behaviour response, ecology and adaption and genetic analysis of population structure.

In addition to sampling reindeer directly there was a broader initiative to monitor the recovery of vegetation after the removal of the reindeer. This involved setting up long-term monitoring sites in representative habitats, which will be re-visited over the next 5-10 years to see how vegetation height and community composition changes.

Living arrangements During the fence construction and slaughter stages of the operation and for parts of the herding, the majority of staff were housed in an eight person sleeping hut (Figure 13) with the remaining personnel occupying two person tents, which were pitched close by. When herding operations were focused on the south of the Busen area, herding staff stayed in Husvik Villa. On two occasions herding teams stayed away from camp overnight and in these cases tents were depoted at strategic locations

Figure 13. Field huts at Tønsberg. AM Wilson.

Meals were cooked in a separate eating and dining hut, which was adjacent to the sleeping hut (on the left in Figure 12). Rainwater collection tanks provided water for washing and drinking water was supplied in jerry cans from the Pharos SG every 2 or 3 days. The majority of food was tinned with only a small amount of dry food (pasta, rice, milk etc). This was supplemented with fresh reindeer meat.

Role of Pharos SG Pharos SG provided support for the project in a number of ways. Critically, as the ship has VHF, iridium and SatC equipment, it was the main communication hub for contact between herding parties, shooters and the Government Officers. Pharos SG was also the mother ship for all small boat operations, including the seatruck which was used for cargo offload and carcass movement during slaughter, and the zodiac, which was used for personnel movements and shooter deployment. The ship is equipped with good workshop facilities and the engineers on board were able to make running repairs to small boats and assist with repairs to some shore based equipment such as water pumps and the carcass hanging system.

13 3. Finance The cost breakdown for the project to date is as follows:

Planning £70,857 Herding £451,862 Shooting £106,415 Resources used equally by £162,800 herding/shooting

The projected value of meat sales is in the region on £110,000 (assuming all 7,500kg are sold at an average price of £15 per kg). It is estimated that approximately £20,000 will be recouped by selling the equipment used for the herding operation.

4. Lessons learned On reviewing operations in phase 1 of the project, some important lessons were learned that will influence planning for phase 2 of operations on the Barff Peninsula.

Animal welfare Following the winter, many of the reindeer were in poor condition and did not react well to the stresses of herding. Often several attempts were needed in order to move through an area and as a result animals had to be gathered several times and they became panicked and stressed. The poor condition of the animals was evidenced by the low body weight and body fat content of the animals when they were examined post-slaughtered. In the corral area a small number of animals suffered broken legs and antlers. Although every attempt was made to keep mothers and calves together, there was clear evidence that some dependent calves were separated from their mothers. During bad weather, some animals died in the corral as a result of their poor body condition and inability to find shelter. A vet from the Falkland Islands Department of Agriculture oversaw the slaughter and butchery operation, and every attempt was made to ensure high standards of animal welfare. However, the methodology was intrinsically stressful for non-domesticated animals and this will be a key consideration when deciding on an appropriate methodology for operations on the Barff Peninsula.

Out of the 2,567 animals that were shot, all were hit in a ‘kill area’ (either head or heart/lungs) with the first bullet. Animals usually died within 5-10 seconds of being shot. Although there were concerns about misfired shots hitting wildlife, by using experienced marksmen and safe shooting practices (i.e. always ensuring a clean backdrop), there were no reported instances of wildlife being inadvertently shot, even when shooting was taking place in areas with high densities of seals and penguins. Another concern was that noise of the rifle shot would disturb wildlife but

14 the use of suppressors alleviated this problem.

Cost The overall cost of phase 1 of the project was somewhat more than the £500,000 that was originally estimated. This is partly because of costs associated with modifying the fishing vessel to process the reindeer meat and partly because of staff costs. The herding element of the operation was considerably more expensive than the shooting component but did allow carcasses to be removed from the area, which was a priority. The meat recovered from the herding operation will hopefully be sold to tour ship companies and will help raise awareness about habitat restoration on South Georgia. However, for an operation on the Barff Peninsula, removal of carcasses is not such a priority and operational constraints aside, the high cost means commercial meat recovery is not a practicable option.

Team work Bringing together personnel from very different cultural backgrounds presented its own unique challenges when groups needed to work together. In most circumstances the different groups worked well together but regular briefings were needed to manage people’s expectations and ensure everyone was clear on the priorities and order of work. In the future, closer liaison with different groups before the start of the project would allow workers to understand the specifics of the project they are going to be involved with and the realities of living on South Georgia.

Vessel operations Processing carcasses on board a modified processing vessel was successful, albeit expensive. However, a key requirement for this was a corral site that had two suitable anchorages within 1 nautical mile (one for the Pharos SG and one for the processing vessel). This is key to allow seatruck operations to take place safely and in a time frame that would be consistent with carcass processing. Unfortunately, no such suitable site exists on the Barff Peninsula.

5. Conclusion On the whole, phase 1 of the reindeer eradication project went well. At the end of the operational period searches of the Busen area were made by foot patrols and the embarked aircraft on the HMS Argyll made a helicopter reconnaissance. No reindeer have been sighted and GSGSSI are confident that the area is clear of reindeer.

Despite the success of phase 1 of the operation, a different approach is needed for operations on the Barff Peninsula. Lessons learned in phase 1 indicate that a herding

15 methodology would not be suitable. Instead, ground shooters will be the primary means to eradicate reindeer and meat recovery will be recovered for local consumption.

Acknowledgments Thanks to the staff at King Edward Point and the captains, officers and crew of the support vessels for their hospitality. As well as providing staff and expertise on the ground, Statens Naturoppsyn provided valuable insight during the planning stage of the project. The Falkland Island Meat Company provided advice on butchery. South Atlantic Trading Ltd are thanked for their expertise and advice during equipment procurement. Major Peter Biggs is thanked for his work in reviewing the firearms safety procedures and, Steve Dent and Simon Browning are thanked for their efforts ensuring the ammunition arrived in the Falklands on time.