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PARK SERVICE DUMPING RAT POISON IN OCEAN -- Phil Friedman-ons 27nov02
By PHIL FRIEDMAN, Outdoor News Service
Passengers and crew on two sportfishing boats were pelted with rat poison dumped from a helicopter while fishing off Anacapa Island this past Saturday and watched as "truckloads" of the pellets were dropped into the waters around the island.
Apparently, the helicopter was under contract with the National Park Service to drop the poison on the island to eradicate black rats, but a spokesperson for the Channel Island National Park denied the incident occurred.
The Erna-B out of Port Hueneme Sportfishing and the Island Tak out of Cisco's Sportfishing in Oxnard, were about 220 yards off of Frenchy's Cove at Anacapa Island Saturday fishing for calico bass when the anglers and crew saw a helicopter moving toward them. As the helicopter got closer, the anglers could see that the helicopter was dropping something into the Channel Island waters. As the helicopter approached over the two boats, rat poison pellets came raining down on the boats and into the water.
"Truckloads," is how Shaun Akers, an Erna-B deckhand, described the quantity of pellets dropped into the water as well as on top of the heads of the passengers on board.
"We all watched as truckloads of the pellets were dropped on us as well as into the water," said Akers. "Can you imagine the fish, birds and other marine life that are eating that stuff?" According to several anglers and crew on board the Erna-B and Island Tak, the helicopter made several passes over the two sportboats dropping more and more pellets into the water as well as on the sportboats themselves.
"We were in shock," said Carl Pugh, a Camarillo resident who was a passenger on the Erna-B. "When the helicopter dropped the rat poison the first time, we thought it might have been a mistake. But then, the helicopter came back at least another six times and was dropping more and more rat poison in to the water as well as on the boats.
"I had to pick the pellets out of my hair," said Pugh. Yvonne Menard, the public information officer for the Channel Islands National Park said that they are in charge of the eradication of the black rat on Anacapa Island and there was a two-hour operation on Saturday that involved the use of a contract helicopter to apply the rat poison to the island.
"Our goal is to restore the ecosystem on Anacapa Island as the black rats have endangered birds and reptiles here," said Menard. "Rats have been introduced into 82 percent of the worlds islands and are responsible for 40 to 50 percent of bird and reptile extinction. The Anacapa Restoration project is an attempt to remove the rats from the island so that rare birds and reptiles do not perish forever." said Menard.
Menard said the two-phase project, which began last year with poisoning on the east island, and continued this year on the middle and west islands. A helicopter was used to apply the rat poison due to the steepness of the terrain, and the park service had a permit to apply the rat poison Brodifacoum, the same poison available in stores for home use but at a lower potency, at a density of 1 1/2 pellets per square meter.
In response to the claims by the fishermen that the pellets were dropped on them, Menard said they had received no reports about the incident and said it was not possible that truckloads of the rat poison were dropped into the ocean. "I can attest that did not occur." said Menard, who explained that there were park service observers on the island to assure the project went smoothly, but she did not rule out that some pellets may have fallen into the ocean.
"If someone out there has information about this, please call us so we can do something about it," said Menard. Menard said they are very careful about the distribution of rat pellets. "We have studies done that indicate no harm to the marine environment. We have had divers in the water to make sure that we are as careful as possible with the distribution of the pellets," said Menard. "I'm sure they have the best of intentions," said Bruce Williams of Port Hueneme Sportfishing. "But there methods are crude to say the least. I don't understand how dumping that amount of poison into the water can have no effect," said Williams.
Menard said a similar operation last year on East Anacapa Island and the rat poison killed 49 different birds from sparrows, warblers and meadowlarks to a ground owl. So far, they have documented 20 bird deaths so far from Saturday's application.
"That has got to harm the ecosystem. What happens if fish eat these toxins and then people eat it later? Furthermore, if sportfishermen were out there dumping toxins into the water, we would be arrested in short order. I just hope somebody gets to the bottom of this before some permanent damage is done," said Williams.
By PHIL FRIEDMAN, Outdoor News Service
Passengers and crew on two sportfishing boats were pelted with rat poison dumped from a helicopter while fishing off Anacapa Island this past Saturday and watched as "truckloads" of the pellets were dropped into the waters around the island.
Apparently, the helicopter was under contract with the National Park Service to drop the poison on the island to eradicate black rats, but a spokesperson for the Channel Island National Park denied the incident occurred.
The Erna-B out of Port Hueneme Sportfishing and the Island Tak out of Cisco's Sportfishing in Oxnard, were about 220 yards off of Frenchy's Cove at Anacapa Island Saturday fishing for calico bass when the anglers and crew saw a helicopter moving toward them. As the helicopter got closer, the anglers could see that the helicopter was dropping something into the Channel Island waters. As the helicopter approached over the two boats, rat poison pellets came raining down on the boats and into the water.
"Truckloads," is how Shaun Akers, an Erna-B deckhand, described the quantity of pellets dropped into the water as well as on top of the heads of the passengers on board.
"We all watched as truckloads of the pellets were dropped on us as well as into the water," said Akers. "Can you imagine the fish, birds and other marine life that are eating that stuff?" According to several anglers and crew on board the Erna-B and Island Tak, the helicopter made several passes over the two sportboats dropping more and more pellets into the water as well as on the sportboats themselves.
"We were in shock," said Carl Pugh, a Camarillo resident who was a passenger on the Erna-B. "When the helicopter dropped the rat poison the first time, we thought it might have been a mistake. But then, the helicopter came back at least another six times and was dropping more and more rat poison in to the water as well as on the boats.
"I had to pick the pellets out of my hair," said Pugh. Yvonne Menard, the public information officer for the Channel Islands National Park said that they are in charge of the eradication of the black rat on Anacapa Island and there was a two-hour operation on Saturday that involved the use of a contract helicopter to apply the rat poison to the island.
"Our goal is to restore the ecosystem on Anacapa Island as the black rats have endangered birds and reptiles here," said Menard. "Rats have been introduced into 82 percent of the worlds islands and are responsible for 40 to 50 percent of bird and reptile extinction. The Anacapa Restoration project is an attempt to remove the rats from the island so that rare birds and reptiles do not perish forever." said Menard.
Menard said the two-phase project, which began last year with poisoning on the east island, and continued this year on the middle and west islands. A helicopter was used to apply the rat poison due to the steepness of the terrain, and the park service had a permit to apply the rat poison Brodifacoum, the same poison available in stores for home use but at a lower potency, at a density of 1 1/2 pellets per square meter.
In response to the claims by the fishermen that the pellets were dropped on them, Menard said they had received no reports about the incident and said it was not possible that truckloads of the rat poison were dropped into the ocean. "I can attest that did not occur." said Menard, who explained that there were park service observers on the island to assure the project went smoothly, but she did not rule out that some pellets may have fallen into the ocean.
"If someone out there has information about this, please call us so we can do something about it," said Menard. Menard said they are very careful about the distribution of rat pellets. "We have studies done that indicate no harm to the marine environment. We have had divers in the water to make sure that we are as careful as possible with the distribution of the pellets," said Menard. "I'm sure they have the best of intentions," said Bruce Williams of Port Hueneme Sportfishing. "But there methods are crude to say the least. I don't understand how dumping that amount of poison into the water can have no effect," said Williams.
Menard said a similar operation last year on East Anacapa Island and the rat poison killed 49 different birds from sparrows, warblers and meadowlarks to a ground owl. So far, they have documented 20 bird deaths so far from Saturday's application.
"That has got to harm the ecosystem. What happens if fish eat these toxins and then people eat it later? Furthermore, if sportfishermen were out there dumping toxins into the water, we would be arrested in short order. I just hope somebody gets to the bottom of this before some permanent damage is done," said Williams.
