thumb|400px|right|Hawadax Island (no 13).

Hawadax Island (;) is an island in the Rat Islands archipelago of the western Aleutian Islands in the U.S. state of Alaska. The island was formerly known as Rat Island until May 2012 when it was renamed Hawadax Island, which is an Aleut name meaning "entry" and "welcome". The island has a land area of and no permanent population. It is within the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.

The former name is the English translation of the name given to the islands by Captain Fyodor Petrovich Litke in 1827 when he visited the Aleutian Islands on a voyage around the world.

The Rat Islands are very earthquake-prone as they are on the boundary of the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. In 1965, there was a major earthquake with the magnitude 8.7 in the Rat Islands.

Conservation and restoration

thumb|right|Hawadax Island

The island was heavily infested with brown rats (Rattus norvegicus), which are considered a nuisance invasive species due to their negative impact on the population of ground-nesting wild birds.

The rats arrived on the island before 1780 due to a Japanese shipwreck. Since then, the rats had a devastating effect on local seabirds that have no natural defenses against the rats. Invasive rats are also present on 16 other islands in the Aleutian chain. Some nontarget mortality was expected, but the actual quantity exceeded what was predicted. reported that more than 420 birds were killed as a result of the rat eradication program. With the exception of bald eagles, most bird populations surveyed increased in abundance so the impacts on non-target species are likely to be temporary.

In June 2009, the island was declared rat-free for the first time in 229 years, although the site was continually monitored for another two years for confirmation. The report found that the lead contractor which the FWS used, Island Conservation, had dropped more poisonous bait than they had proposed, including bait which was intended to be saved as a backup. is still investigating.

See also

  • Campbell Island, New Zealand, the largest successful rat eradication.

References

  • Island ConservationRat Island Invasive Rat Eradication Project Environmental Assessment
  • Rat Island: Block 1140, Census Tract 1, Aleutians West Census Area, Alaska United States Census Bureau
  • The Rat Island Rat Eradication Project: A Critical Evaluation of Nontarget Mortality. Prepared for Island Conservation, the Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Prepared by the Ornithological Council. Final report issued December 2010.
  • US Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Law Enforcement, Report of Investigation #2009703127R001