There are no rats on the Pribilof Islands, and we need to keep it that way!
Rat trap stations are set-up all around the harbor on St. George as the first line of defense and a detection system if rats ever made it onto the island. If a rat was ever caught, a rapid eradication response would be initiated.
The Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge maintains these traps, and the stations are checked at least 4 times each season. It’s a lot of work.
Today was the first check of the season.
Marc Romano met us at the harbor, and gave us a great lesson about how traps work and how to set them (without loosing any fingers). Traps are set either in old wooden boxes, or plastic barrels all around the harbor. Each station has to be found, and the trap assessed.
We learned how to change bait balls (rats like peanut butter), wire brush and oil rusty hinges, and reset them before closing up the station.
After refueling with a lovely picnic lunch at Karin’s camp house, we split into two teams. Great team work and fast work, the interns rocked with a total of 45 stations checked by the end of the day! Maurice thinks he may want a job as a professional rat-trapper one day.
Waylen, Bianca, and the twins joined Ann for some work at the greenhouse in the afternoon. There is a huge pile of top-soil that needs to be chipped away at to remove vegetation and rocks and salvage any soil for growing. After an hour (of very enthusiastic) digging, we had just over half a wheel-barrow full!
