Track record sees pilots in demand

After a successful rat-eradication scheme, Rat Island, in Alaska, is in need of a new name, and two New Zealand pilots' skills are once again in demand.

Helicopters Otago managing director Graeme Gale, of Dunedin, and Peter Garden Helicopters director Peter Garden, of Wanaka, completed an Island Conservation group rat-eradication mission in the Aleutian Islands in September 2008.

This month, biologists confirmed their work had paid off.

Not that the pilots needed any verification.

"We've been doing this for so long, we know when things have gone right," Mr Garden said.

It was their proven track record in eradicating rats, including on Campbell and Codfish islands in the Southern Ocean, which landed them the job, and their success in it has prompted offers of four more jobs.

"New Zealand is leading the field. They [clients] are coming to New Zealand from right around the world for the expertise, the equipment, technology and piloting skills," Mr Gale said.

The first of these jobs will take place in February, when the men will tackle a 20,0000ha section of South Georgia, in the South Atlantic Ocean, over four weeks, for the South Georgia Heritage Trust.

Because the job is so big, it will take place over a five-year period, with different sections of the island included in each phase.

As the island is split by glaciers stretching to the sea, which rats do not cross, they have the luxury of doing it in stages.

Another job on Palmyra Atoll, south of Hawaii, is set for July next year, with others on Henderson Atoll, part of the Pitcairn Island group, and Gough Island in the South Atlantic, to follow.

Mr Gale and Mr Garden will pilot two helicopters in South Georgia equipped with GPS systems and bait buckets the southern men have developed which enable an accurate and even distribution of poison.

"We have the ability to go from a pest-control operation to eradication. It all comes back to the skills of those guys who are thinking outside the square," Mr Garden said.

ellie.constantine@odt.co.nz

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