Peter visits Mouse-Free Marion Project office in Cape Town

From left: John Cooper, MFM News Correspondent, Robyn Adams, MFM Communications Officer, Peter Harrison, Shirley Metz, Sue Tonin, MFM Assistant Project Manager and Guy Preston, Vice-Chair, MFM Non-Profit Company; photograph by Eleanor Weideman

Peter Harrison, Reason Nyengera, BirdLife South Africa’s Albatross Task Force Project Manager and Shirley Metz with a framed photograph of a Wandering Albatross in flight that Peter had signed for BirdLife South Africa during the Flock to Marion 2022 voyage; photograph by John Cooper

This past March, the Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project invited Peter Harrison and Shirley Metz for afternoon tea at BirdLife South Africa’s recently opened Cape Town headquarters. The Project has an office in a renovated Victorian house which serves as a meeting place for its widely scattered team. Peter is the MFM Project’s first-appointed Patron, one of six international Patrons, and the first to visit the new Cape Town office.

Following introductions to both the MFM Project and BirdLife South Africa Seabird Conservation Program staff, Peter and Shirley were taken on a tour of the building where they admired the many donated artworks that fill the corridor walls and rooms. The group then discussed the Mouse-Free Marion Project and other seabird conservation topics. Peter confirmed his support for the MFM Project and, based on his first-hand experience of the recovery of South Georgia after its rodents were eradicated, he expects a similar recovery on Marion Island after its mice are gone.