Who kills seagulls on Mamula?

Members of the initiative "fender", activists of the NGO "Naša akcija" and the Mountaineering Society "Vjeverica", claim that the island of Lastavica, better known to the public as Mamula, has turned from a former safe habitat into a graveyard for seagulls and rabbits.

Yesterday, they published photos and video footage showing a large number of dead birds, and their volunteers also witnessed a large number of dead rabbits on the island. The volunteers, as they state, also collected samples of the poison with which they suspect the animals were killed on the island.

"Wanting to reward her volunteers, who worked hard on projects all over the country in the past months, the president of the NGO 'Naša akcija' Patricia Pobrić decided to give them a day of rest, recreation and enjoyment. Together with the members of the hiking club 'Vjeverica', they visited the Rose bay, the tunnel that was once used by the army for submarines, the Blue Cave and finally the island of Lastavica, where the beautiful forteca Mamula is located, a future boutique hotel with swimming pools and casinos, which will build an Egyptian- the Swiss consortium 'Orascom'. Their luck is that Mamula was not the only destination, because what the activists and volunteers found there belongs to the realm of horror movies," the video from Mamula was published on the "Bokobrana" website.

"Bokobran" states that the approach to the island used to be accompanied by huge flocks of seagulls, and that when their members recently visited Lastavica, they practically did not see any birds over the island. Instead, seagulls, but dead, were found among the walls of the abandoned island prison of Mamula.

According to records, rabbits were brought to Lastavica in the XNUMXs, and visitors could see numerous seagull nests on the island until recently. For those animal species, the old buildings on Lastavica were the perfect home, according to those in the know.

Pobrić claims that it is about "cleaning" before construction.

"The same was done on the island of Sveti Nikola, known as Hawaii, across from Budva, by hunting deer and other game that used to be abundant there," she told "Vijesti".

Today, "Bokobran" sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Directorate for Inspection Affairs and the Maritime Dobra, stating that they will send the poison samples to an independent laboratory abroad.

"We want to report that we (justifiably) suspect that someone has consumed birds on the island of Lastavica (Mamula). We have done your work so far, carried out an investigation based on a tip, photographed dead seagulls, recorded video footage, collected a sample of a package with poison... Along with performing your work, we will continue to insist that you take full responsibility for it, because the citizens of this ecological country are paying you for it," the letter from "Bokobrana" states.

"Vijesti" wrote about the killing of ungulate deer in Hawaii in 2010, when more than 30 capital specimens of that species, which represented the island's symbol for almost half a century, were killed during that year and in 2009. At the time, it was also announced that it was questionable whether there were any more specimens of that animal left in Hawaii.

Deer were brought to that largest island on the Montenegrin coast in the mid-60s of the last century, at the request of Budva hunters. After the permission of Josip Broz Tito, two couples were brought to Hawaii from Brion. As the animals on Saint Nicholas had no natural enemies, except humans, and poaching was severely punished at that time, the deer multiplied quickly. Besides them, there were mouflons, pheasants and rabbits on the island.

"Vijesti" wrote then that everything lasted until 2007, when the previous owner, Belgrade businessman Nenad Đorđević, sold four hectares of land to Stanko Subotic Canet for 24 million euros.

At that time, stories circulated in Budva that safaris were organized on the island and that hunters from various regions came to kill deer and other game.

"Bokobran" announced the filing of a criminal complaint against unknown persons due to the killing of seagulls and rabbits on Lastavica.

OHM Mamula: We did not undertake any activities to the detriment of seagulls

The company OHM Mamula Montenegro is not responsible for the death of seagulls on the island of Lastavica in Herceg Novi, nor did it undertake any actions to the detriment of the colony of seagulls at that location, the company announced today.

The announcement adds that they have engaged the company for sanitary and environmental protection "Slavisan DDD", a certified company for extermination of small rodents, which was carried out on the island of Lastavica on May 29, 2017.

They also pointed out that after that, inspections of the placed baits were carried out in June and July, and during the controls, the last of which was on July 24, it was not registered that any animal, except rodents - rats, consumed the placed baits.

"The preparation that has been placed has as its target group only rodents (mice and rats). Baits in the form of a paraffin block have been placed in special boxes that birds cannot consume. The preparation contains the active substance bromadialon with the addition of bitrex - a bitter substance that prevents any other animal for the bait to consume - and that in a very small concentration of only 0,005%. As such, it is fatal only for rodents. Based on our many years of experience as well as our colleagues from the region, we confidently assert that the cause of the death of the seagulls on the island is thousands, for some other reason. As we know that seagulls feed on food of animal origin and very rarely on animal carcasses, taking into account that it is an anticoagulant preparation, there is no possibility of secondary poisoning. Even if another animal eats a dead rodent, it cannot get poisoned," said Dr. Spc. of hygiene in "Slavisan DDD" Ljubica Nikolić.

The company also said that due to the increased number of rodents and the danger that their nests will be threatened, extermination was undertaken at this location.

"The Association for Disinfection, Pest Control and Phytosanitary Services of Montenegro says that the same preparation has been used for decades in systematic pest control of entire cities and no unwanted case of poisoning has ever been recorded except for targeted rodents. In previous months, in communication with non-governmental organizations for the protection of birds, OHM "Mamula has clearly announced that it will not undertake any preparatory actions at the location in the period from February to September, when nesting seagulls take place on Lastavica, which it adheres to," said OHM Mamula Montenegro.

They also claim that those involved in the project stay on the island almost every day, as part of the activities on the creation of a conservation-restoration project that must be in accordance with the conservation conditions of the Administration for the Protection of Monuments, that is, the Ministry of Culture.

"However, since access to the island is free, and no control system has been established because some of the procedural activities that will allow the site to be taken over in full have not yet been completed, we cannot guarantee the behavior of tourists and other visitors passing through or staying on the island Our services have, precisely for the reason that piles of garbage and other waste are kept both on the island and in the Mamula fortress, organized the cleaning and arrangement of the paths several times this year," concludes the announcement of the company OHM Mamula Montenegro.