The Jersey Asian Hornet Group have just finished two days of filming with Topical Television, who were commissioned by the BBC’s The One Show to film a report for Asian Hornet Week starting on 6 September.
Director Carol White and cameraman Joe Cooper were shown several recently discovered nests, and recorded interviews with members of the team responsible for tracking the invasive species. Alastair Christie, Jersey’s Asian hornet co-ordinator, who was among those who were interviewed, said it had been a ‘worthwhile, but very busy two days’.
He added: ‘They arrived on Monday and within minutes we took them to a nest in St Brelade which they were able to film, and we also went out to the east of the Island and covered some tracking procedures.’
The piece will feature a number of topics, such as capturing, marking and tracking Asian hornets.
Mr Christie said: ‘I think most of the team have been interviewed before, so in the end I think they got a lot of good footage as well as information about what we do and why we do it. They also used a drone which was quite fun.’
He added: ‘It’s a very different situation in Jersey than it is in the UK – here Asian Hornet Week is every week, so hopefully they were able to get a real flavour of the work that goes on and the hours put in by our volunteers.
‘It’s a really great way of profiling what we do.’
Group member John de Carteret, who is also the vice-president of the Jersey Beekeepers’ Association, said: ‘Hopefully it captured what we are trying to get across regarding the community involvement. It’s not just a specialist team and we are forever seeking to widen the volunteer group with people who we can give training to, and who will become valuable members of the team.’
So far this year there have been 25 nests found in the Island – around half the number discovered by this time in 2019.
