The Mouse-Free Marion Project and BirdLife South Africa raised R9 000 000, for conservation.
This was through a voyage in association with MSC Cruises, in January, this year.
The voyage departed the Durban Harbour on the 24th January, to the Prince Edward Islands, with about 1,900 birders and conservationists aboard.
The purpose of the cruise was to raise funds and awareness of the wide variety of seabirds that live in the Southern Ocean, many of which breed on Prince Edward and Marion Island, located 1900 kilometres from Durban, or roughly halfway to Antarctica.
The islands are in a band of latitude long known by sailors as the ’Roaring Forties,’ due to the area’s fierce winds.
The focus of the trip was to highlight the plight faced by seabirds, such as predation by invasive house mice.
The voyage also raised funds for the MouseFree Marion Project, a conservation campaign dedicated to restoring Marion Islands ecosystem.
Among the 1,900 passengers aboard the MSC Musica, were seasoned scientists and researchers, such as Peter Harrison MBE, who spent most of his life, studying seabirds and is the first Patron of the Mouse-Free Marion Project.
Also on the cruise was Professor Peter Ryan, Emeritus Professor of the University of Cape Town and former director of the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology.
Some species spotted in the Island are the Wandering, Sooty, Grey-headed, and Indian
Yellow-nosed Albatross, Macaroni and King Penguins, Southern and Northern Giant, Petrel, Salvin’s and Antarctic Prion, and Blue and Kerguelen Petrel, as well as a wide variety of cetaceans.
Picture: The Mouse-Free Marion Project