Hawadax Island (;) is an island in the

Rat Islands The Rat Islands (,) are a group of American High islands, volcanic islands in the Aleutian Islands in southwestern Alaska, between Buldir Island and the Near Islands group to its west, and Amchitka Pass and the Andreanof Islands group to its e ...

archipelago of the western

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands ( ; ; , "land of the Aleuts"; possibly from the Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', or "island")—also called the Aleut Islands, Aleutic Islands, or, before Alaska Purchase, 1867, the Catherine Archipelago—are a chain ...

in the U.S. state of

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

. The island was formerly known as Rat Island until May 2012 when it was renamed Hawadax Island, which is an Aleut name meaning "entry" and "welcome". The island has a land area of and no permanent population. It is within the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. The former name is the English translation of the name given to the islands by Captain Fyodor Petrovich Litke in 1827 when he visited the Aleutian Islands on a voyage around the world. The Rat Islands are very earthquake-prone as they are on the boundary of the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

and

North American North America is a continent in the Northern and Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the sou ...

tectonic plates Plate tectonics (, ) is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of , an idea developed durin ...

. In 1965, there was a major earthquake with the magnitude 8.7 in the Rat Islands.

Conservation and restoration

The island was heavily infested with

brown rat The brown rat (''Rattus norvegicus''), also known as the common rat, street rat, sewer rat, wharf rat, Hanover rat, Norway rat and Norwegian rat, is a widespread species of common rat. One of the largest Muroidea, muroids, it is a brown or grey ...

s (''Rattus norvegicus''), which are considered a nuisance

invasive species An invasive species is an introduced species that harms its new environment. Invasive species adversely affect habitats and bioregions, causing ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage. The term can also be used for native spec ...

due to their negative impact on the population of ground-nesting wild birds. The rats arrived on the island before 1780 due to a Japanese

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. It results from the event of ''shipwrecking'', which may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately thre ...

. Since then, the rats had a devastating effect on local seabirds that have no natural defenses against the rats. Invasive rats are also present on 16 other islands in the Aleutian chain. In 2007, the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fins and a hard skull, but lacking limbs with digits. Fish can be grouped into the more basal jawless fish and the more common jawed fis ...

(FWS), which manages the refuge, was formulating plans to eradicate the rats. The eradication plan is modelled on a successful one to eliminate the

Arctic fox The Arctic fox (''Vulpes lagopus''), also known as the white fox, polar fox, or snow fox, is a small species of fox native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and common throughout the Tundra#Arctic tundra, Arctic tundra biome. I ...

from various Aleutian islands, where they were deliberately introduced for breeding. In September 2008, the U.S.

(FWS), in partnership with Island Conservation and

The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, United States. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in ...

eradicated Norway rats with the first aerial application of bait in the State of Alaska. Some nontarget mortality was expected, but the actual quantity exceeded what was predicted. The Ornithological Council reported that more than 420 birds were killed as a result of the rat eradication program. Forty-six

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche ...

s died (exceeding the known population of 22 bald eagles on the island); toxicological analysis revealed lethal levels of

brodifacoum Brodifacoum is a highly lethal 4-Hydroxycoumarins, 4-hydroxycoumarin vitamin K antagonist anticoagulant poison. In recent years, it has become one of the world's most widely used pesticides. It is typically used as a rodenticide, but is also used ...

in 12 of the 16 carcasses tested. Of the 320 glaucous-winged gull carcasses collected, toxicology tests implicated brodifacoum in 24 of the 34 tested. Fifty-four carcasses of another 25 bird species were found. With the exception of bald eagles, most bird populations surveyed increased in abundance so the impacts on non-target species are likely to be temporary. In June 2009, the island was declared rat-free for the first time in 229 years, although the site was continually monitored for another two years for confirmation. The report found that the lead contractor which the FWS used, Island Conservation, had dropped more poisonous bait than they had proposed, including bait which was intended to be saved as a backup. The FWS asked the Ornithological Council to determine if Island Conservation had exceeded the limit of their poison quantities, but the council decided not to resolve any "legal questions". , the State of Alaska issued a Notice of Violation and FWS law enforcement is still investigating. Steve Delehanty, the manager of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (which includes the island) said that, "It was a learning experience, and we made mistakes together." However, he also stated, "...if you do the math this was a rip-roaring conservation success." Post eradication monitoring results have shown a strong positive response in terms of bird populations and the intertidal zone.

References

External links

Island Conservation
https://web.archive.org/web/20081028235354/http://alaska.fws.gov/nwr/akmar/pdf/rat_assessment_508.pdf Rat Island Invasive Rat Eradication Project Environmental Assessment]
Rat Island: Block 1140, Census Tract 1, Aleutians West Census Area, Alaska
United States Census Bureau
The Rat Island Rat Eradication Project: A Critical Evaluation of Nontarget Mortality. Prepared for Island Conservation, the Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Prepared by the Ornithological Council. Final report issued December 2010.US Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Law Enforcement, Report of Investigation #2009703127R001
{{authority control Rat Islands Island restoration Uninhabited islands of Alaska Islands of Alaska Islands of Unorganized Borough, Alaska

Conservation and restoration

See also

References

External links