The wreck of a Japanese sailing ship in the mid-1700s caused what's now known as a "rat spill" on the Aleutian Island called Howadax. The island from then on has been known for the rodent which devastated the native birds living there. Thanks to a massive rat-ridding effort, Rat Island is rat-free and once again can be known as Howadax.
Authorities in St. Paul are aware of the devastation a similar plague of rats could bring to the Pribilofs. Rat prevention is a top priority for the tribal Ecosystem Conservation Office's Phil Zavadil.
"The only good rat is a dead rat," said Zavadil in his office May 24. "We manage the rat prevention program. We have rat prevention stations throughout the harbor, at the airport, the landfill, and the store. We maintain them on a monthly basis. There's poison and snap traps in them," he said.
St. Paul's harbormaster can refuse entrance to any vessel known to have rats onboard. The port's "rat-free harbor ordinance" also bans rat-infested ships from coming closer than three miles to the harbor. By requiring the fishing industry to be part of the rodent prevention program, both the community and the industry are better off.
Norway rats and roof rats have colonized at least 82 percent of the 123 major island groups worldwide. In every case the arrival of rats has decimated native species, especially island birds with no previous predators. Local extinction, as in the case of Rat Island, is often the result. Rats eat eggs and chicks and on many rat-infested Aleutian islands they cache large numbers of adults which they kill. Biologists believe non-native rates are responsible for 40 percent to 60 percent of all bird and reptile extinctions since 1600.
The large number of ground-nesting seabirds in the Pribilofs would make the islands rat heaven.
"Cats don't go after rats," said Zavadil. "Foxes don't go after rats. As long as there're people here, boats coming into the harbor, and seabirds and seals to protect and people to protect we'll continue to do rat prevention."
"We're always seeking to build a better rat trap," he said. The "rat stations" are 35 gallon plastic jugs modified to serve the purpose of poisoning the rodents. Snap-traps baited with fish-oil suffused sponges lure the vermin to the poison. About 150 of the "rat motels" are deployed around the port.
"There's been a total of nine rats killed," said Zavadil. "There have been some unconfirmed sightings over the years, but the ones we know for sure have been dead."
It's been six years since the last rat was found.
This story is posted with permission from Alaska Newspapers Inc., which publishes six weekly community newspapers, a statewide shopper, a statewide magazine and slate of special publications that supplement its products year-round.