Marthan Bester: new FELLOW of the Royal Society of South Africa!!

Prof Marthan Bester pleased with another successful tracking device deployment on a southern elephant seal bull at Gough Island in 2015. Photo: Nico de Bruyn

Retired Emeritus Professor Marthan Bester, the initiator of the MIMMP and it’s Principal Investigator for three decades, will join the illustrious ranks of Fellowship of the Royal Society of South Africa during 2019.

This fantastic accolade is bestowed for his lifetime of dedicated research and conservation efforts related to Subantarctic and Antarctic marine mammals, and particularly seals. Furthermore, his central role in the worlds largest successful island eradication of feral cats is regarded as a conservation success story the world over. His achievements are too numerous to recite, but importantly, he has achieved all this while being a generous mentor to hundreds of students, field personnel and colleagues. For more stories about the incredible legacy of the MIMMP and history of the cat eradication efforts, consider buying our popular legacy book “Pain forms the Character”.

A young Marthan Bester traversing the snowy mountains of Marion Island in the 1970’s. Photo: Grant Craig