Under the new lease with Charles River Laboratories the island and the monkeys are no longer under this system (Maier). As of 2002, Morgan Island was a part of the ACE Basin NERR System. This is the most probable explanation for why the contract of the monkeys changed hands from Alpha Genesis to Charles River Laboratories. At the time, Alpha Genesis, and the SCDNR were not supported in their decision to keep the island unaccessible. There was public controversy about the mission of the lab and the contract of the monkeys under the NERR system because the island was not accessible to the public, as the other NERR sites were. This is the most probable time that Charles River Laboratories took over the contract of the monkeys.
NERR partners with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and coastal states to study and protect vital coastal and estuarine resources. Alpha Genesis’s contract was to maintain the population of monkeys for biomedical research and testing.Īround 20, Morgan Island was incorporated into the National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) system. Alpha Genesis did lease a major portion of the highlands on Morgan Island for the monkeys.
now operated under the name Alpha Genesis, a Yemassee-based research company. The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) owns the monkeys, and had a long-standing contract with a private firm, LABS of Virginia, Inc. Morgan Island is home to one of only two rhesus monkey colonies in the continental United States, the other being the colony on the Silver River.
The island is operated and owned by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR), to provide a “natural outdoor laboratory for estuarine research and education”. In 1979, over 1,400 animals were relocated to Morgan Island. South Carolina offered uninhabited Morgan Island for the monkeys to be housed. Puerto Rico was alarmed by this, and South Carolina stepped in to offer an island for research. The CDC report stated that there were outbreaks among locals when the monkeys became overpopulated. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were incidents of the free-ranging monkeys that were infected with the herpes B virus escaping. Originally, the monkey colony now located on Morgan Island was located in La Parguera, Puerto Rico at the Caribbean Primate Research Center. Historically, the island has been uninhabited due to its location and distance from the mainland. This colony is fed by automated systems of which are activated inside a building along the north coast of the island. There is a 370-acre portion of upland that supports a semi-tropical maritime forest where the monkey colony primarily resides. Morgan Island is uninhabited, and is home to a breeding colony of approximately 3,500 free-ranging, Indian-origin rhesus monkeys (Maier). The marshland area includes three major tidal creeks as well as other small creeks. The island is located between the Morgan and Coosaw rivers and borders the Saint Helena Sound to the south and Parrot Creek (Klopchin) to the north. Morgan Island is a 4,489 acre marshland island that consists of 635 acres of upland.
It is also known as Monkey Island due to its colony of free-ranging rhesus monkeys, established in 1979. Morgan Island is one of the Sea Islands, located in Beaufort County, South Carolina, just north of Beaufort.