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Macquarie Island pest cull postponed
last update: Jul 23, 2010 10:03 AM
From an "ABC News (Australia)" article: Because of bad weather, the $24.6 million project to eradicate pests on Macquarie Island has been suspended.
The Tasmanian and Federal governments, who jointly funded the project, aim to eradicate rabbits and rodents from the sub-Antarctic island, which is about 1,500 kilometres south-east of Tasmania. However, strong winds and low clouds meant Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife staff could not use their helicopters to distribute poisoned baits.
Peter Mooney, the General Manager of the Parks and Wildlife Service, says they were simply unlucky. "We're just going to re-group and look at next winter."
David O'Byrne, Tasmania's Environment Minister, says only about 8 per cent of the baiting program was completed.
"We now need to sit down with the project team to work through what the expected costs will be, in terms of the coming years, in terms of the management. It's not something that we're able to quantify at this stage but I can say that the Tasmanian Government is absolutely committed to ensuring that this project goes ahead. It's absolutely not a waste, what it does is just unfortunately set us back some time."
Read:
ABC News - Australia, 23rd July 2010
