Letter to ABC News, by Aleco Vrisakis

Dear Ms Martin and Ms Rubbo

ABC News Article posted 2 February 2021 “World Heritage-listed Lord Howe Island wildlife flourishes after eradicating 300,000 rodents”

I have had a close connection with Lord Howe Island and been a frequent visitor for over 60 years.

Regrettably, your ABC News story posted 2 February 2021 is fundamentally incorrect (undoubtedly, without your knowledge).

The Business Paper for the Lord Howe Island Board Meeting held in December 2020 (copy of page 1 attached) notes the following:

“Rodent sighting/ sign reports and follow up.

• 6 suspected rodent sightings/ sign reports have been made AugOct 2020.
• Following assessment, 2 reports were progressed to further monitoring/ evidence collection activities”.

In fact, there have been multiple sightings, both of rats and of mice, on Lord Howe Island since the completion of the attempted eradication program.

Dr O’Dwyer’s statement: “It was a really remarkable result, and one we didn’t expect” (added emphasis) is perplexing.

The attempted eradication was extremely controversial. Predictably, it caused unprecedented divisions among the people of the Island. It caused the death of countless birds: it caused the contamination of many fish by ingestion of the dangerous toxin Brodificoum (broadcast over the Island and also falling into adjacent waters). It created ongoing hazards to human health.

If a successful outcome was not expected, as stated by Dr O’Dwyer, the attempted eradication should not have been undertaken.

It is important that the readers of ABC News are given the facts.

Yours sincerely, Aleco Vrisakis.

Letter to The Hon. Matt Kean MP, by Aleco Vrisakis

Dear Minister Kean

Lord Howe Island Rodent Eradication Program (REP)

I refer to your Media-Release dated 1 February 2021.

In the first paragraph, you refer to “the successful completion of one of the world’s largest rodent eradication programs”. In the following sentence you acknowledge the fact that the REP has not “wiped out all … rodents”.

The proposal for the REP was extremely controversial. In all the controversy, there was one ‘given’ – on both sides of the dispute viz. the success of the REP required the elimination of every rodent. As it was stated at the time:

the survival of just one pregnant female rat would suffice to lead, in time, to a revival of the rat population:

I believe that you should know the truth.

It is appropriate that you are aware of the foregoing and that the recent ABC News article (World Heritage-listed Lord Howe Island wildlife flourishes after eradicating 300,000 rodents) is fundamentally incorrect. The article states:

“There hasn’t been a rodent sighted on the World Heritage listed Island in 15 months …”.

The truth appears from the Business Paper for the Lord Howe Island Board Meeting held in December 2020 (copy of page 1 attached) noting the following:

“Rodent sighting/ sign reports and follow up.

• 6 suspected rodent sightings/sign reports have been made AugOct 2020.
• Following assessment, 2 reports were progressed to further monitoring/ evidence collection activities”.

In fact, there have been multiple sightings, both of rats and of mice, on Lord Howe Island since the completion of the attempted eradication program.

Yours sincerely, Aleco Vrisakis

This article appeared in The Lord Howe Island Signal, 28 February 2021.