Habitat Restoration Crew Arrive in Diego Garcia

We arrived safely on Diego Garcia (if somewhat cold and tired after an overnight flight from Bahrain on a C17, landing at 0400 hours).  Not deterred we met with representatives of the British on island to discuss the forthcoming 2 phases of the rat eradication project. All involved from British Forces BIOT (BF BIOT), Swires and MRAG have been extremely helpful and, after tweaking dates due to crew changes and so forth, we have gone with the dates below, which both Grant and I are delighted with.
 
BF BIOT had already loaded the rat bait on to the Pacific Marlin from our two sponsors, Bell Labs (USA) and APC (New Zealand).  NAVFAC Environmental were also extremely helpful (Nestor Guzman); they arranged transport for us to pick up bait boxes from Eagle Island that had been stored with G4S and also facilitated us receiving some essential PPE and material to elevate the boxes to mitigate the impact of hermit crabs.  We are being "loaned" five members from BF BIOT for the first phase who will assist us with ferrying our stores ashore - with aid of a flat-bottomed Rigid Raider and a Canadian kayak.  So, bar a little fine-tuning in the morning (jerry cans for water, batteries for GPS, beer (-: ), we are locked and loaded. Prior to leaving tomorrow we have to undertake a swimming assessment, this will involve an open water swim and climbing in to a boat. 

Pete Carr is a Phd researcher based at Warwick University who is leading and organising this restoration effort.

Grant Harper is a habitat restoration specialist from New Zealand who is providing the expertise in rat eradication for this project.