Activities - Research and Monitoring

The National Parks are managed by a small team of seven well-trained staff. Typical park activities are diverse and planned staff activities can change suddenly in response to an emergency situation or weather change. Activities are also extremely variable, constantly providing challenges for staff, ranging from infrastructure maintenance, boat or hiker rescue through to law enforcement.

Research and Monitoring
The National Parks carry out in-house research and monitoring projects (by staff, interns and volunteers), and also invite visiting scientists to assist with more extensive research projects, or to visit St Eustatius to fulfil individual research programmes. We are currently building a database of all project reports or published publications following research on St Eustatius in recent years. This database will become available through the ‘downloads’ web page. Summaries of some recent and ongoing research and monitoring activities follow.

Island-wide

Annual assessment of bird populations
During January 2004, volunteer ornithologist, Jacqualyn Eales, created and implemented a bird monitoring programme with a series of bird counts at four stations around the island. The long term objective of this project is to monitor bird populations using counts at various sites that represent the main classes of vegetation type on St Eustatius. This survey technique of point counts is very simple as it was designed to be carried out by volunteers. The survey was repeated in January 2006 by volunteers and results submitted to Birdlife International. The data will be reported in the Annual Report 2006. It is hoped that the survey will be repeated on an annual basis.

In September and October 2008, members of staff were taking part in a cource on bird monitoring. The course was led by Dr. Adrian Del Nevo, a professor at the California State University. For more information please read the December 2008 newletter in the download section.

Invasive species – Corallita vine
Research started in December 2005 (and was completed in January 2007) led by botanists Dr Pieter Ketner and Joris Ernst to address the environmental issue of the spreading Corallita vine. The greatest danger is that the plant will invade the National Parks and other areas where it does not yet occur.

Research questions addressed in project
Phenology how does the plant grow; when does it flower and for how long and when does it carry seeds. This will enable us to find out if there is a weak point in the growing cycle, where we could interfere and hinder the plant’s growth.

Viability of seeds how fast do seeds germinate. It appears that the majority of spreading is not by seed, but through cuttings and tubers.

Can seeds germinate after passing through animals guts it is believed that Corallita is spread by animals who have ingested the plant. We wanted to test if this perception is correct and after field observations it has been determined that it is highly unlikely that animals are eating the fruits and dispersing them.

Experiments to eradicate Corallita mechanically and with chemicals; Plants were burnt and also treated with strong herbicides. With the help of Park Ranger John de Bruin, data was collected from experimental plots at the Botanical Gardens.

Dr. Pieter Ketner and Joris Ernst visited the island in November 2005 and May 2006. Their last visit in January 2007 was to evaluate the research carried out by STENAPA staff and to summarize their findings. Funding was received from AMFO.

Research investigations about reptiles on St Eustatius
In June 2004, five faculty members and ten undergraduate students were lead by Dr Robert Powell from Avila University in Missouri (USA) to carry out fieldwork on reptiles with a focus on the Quill and Boven – and also elsewhere. The research resulted in over nine publications that are referenced in the Guidebook Reptiles and Amphibians of the Dutch Caribbean – St Eustatius, Saba and St Maarten including:
• Foraging and display behaviour of the Lesser Antillean Iguana (Iguana delicatissima)
• Abundance and behavioural time allotments by the Red-bellied Racer Snake (Alsophis rufiventris)
• Habitat utilisation and abundance of Statian Dwarf Geckos (Sphaerodactylus sabanus and S. sputator)

St Eustatius National Marine Park

Fish catch survey
This assessment was organised and funded by MINA and implemented from February 2004 onwards. The assessment commenced with a Rapid Fishery Survey and supplemented with data collected by the Marine Park ranger about fish catch and effort. The final report was made available in 2007.

Fish baseline assessment
No full fish population assessment in the Marine Park was carried out until 2004, when UNEP CAR awarded a small grant to collect data from a large number of sites in- and outside of the Marine Reserves. The study results showed a significant increase in diversity in comparison to limited historical figures. The report Fish population assessment of St Eustatius Marine Park was published in mid 2006. The survey will be repeated in 2007.

Queen Conch and Spiny Lobster
A preliminary survey of Queen Conch was conducted by Marine Park intern, Julie Davis in 2003. This work was extended in mid 2005 with a survey conducted by MSc student, Joanna White (a former Marine Park intern). The survey culminated in publication of an MSc dissertation Population assessment of Queen Conch and Spiny Lobster in St Eustatius Marine Park in late 2005. This report gives recommendations for further work and possible amendment of Marine Park law concerning the two species.

Quill / Boven National Park

Roaming animals
Repeat visitors to the Quill National Park have commented on the increasing number of roaming animals feeding on vegetation in the Quill National Park, including goats, sheep, pigs, donkeys, cows and chickens. The migration of roaming animals to the National Park was exacerbated in 2003 due to the long-term drought, that meant that animals wandered uphill to greener areas. A survey in 2005 showed that a large number of animals, particularly goats, were in the Quill crater and therefore a project to cull goats was commenced in mid 2005 with some delays due to gun licensing.