Hawaiʻi Academy of Arts & Science PCS Experiences Tern Island

On Monday, February 27, 2012 Tern Island came to Mrs. Randi Brennon's grade 7 & 8 science classroom...or at least it felt like that.

Students studied maps of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and learned where Tern Island is located.  They also learned about some of the other NW Hawaiian Islands, and their Hawaiian names.

Students were challenged in an activity with a poster showing the many kinds of plants and animals that live on Tern and in the surrounding ocean.  There was a lively discussion about taking care of this special island, and possible careers students could follow in their future.

Big Island resident, Erin Kawakami, volunteered as a wildlife monitor on Tern Island from June through December 2011; she shared her experiences while living on the small island.

Erin learned to recognize the 4 different stages that Laysan Albatross chicks go through as they grow up: Downy, then Partly, then Mostly and finally Fully Feathered Chick

Erin and Abram are getting ready to walk through the Laysan Albatross colony on Tern Island.  Each chick will have its own number on a yellow band around a leg.  Every week Erin and Abram will find each chick and write down on the data table if each chick is a DFC, PFC, MFC or FFC.  The 2 volunteers will do this job for many weeks, until...the chicks "fledge," or fly away!

  

Erin is teaching the HAAS PCS students how to write the chick stages in the data table.

Every student had a photo of a Laysan Albatross chick pinned to his/her back.  Erin is pointing to the yellow tape where the chick's number is written.  Only yellow bands with black numbers are put on albatross that are hatched on Tern Island.

Students moved around the classroom to find every chick, identify its stage, and write the information in their data table.

What stage do you think this Laysan Albatross chick is: DFC, PFC, MFC or FFC?

This student is getting some help from an albatross hoaloha (friend).

Looks like the Hawaiʻi Academy of Arts & Science PCS has a healthy colony of Laysan Albatross!

Lānaʻi High School Students "Sail" to Tern Island

Tern Island is probably about 600 miles away from Lānaʻi High School, which is close to the southeastern end of the Hawaiian Islands archipelago.  On Tuesday, October 18th the two locations seemed a little closer to each other.

On that day 21 high school juniors & seniors and their teacher made a "virtual field trip" to Tern Island, with Barb Mayer (USFWS volunteer) and Wes Byers (NOAA's Outreach Specialist for the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument).

The virtual field trip to far-away Tern was made possible through a Powerpoint presentation, utilizing photos and this real-life video "The Searcher Departs from Honolulu":



After "setting sail" on the Searcher, the students imagined voyaging for 3 days to reach Tern Island where they were to start work as wildlife volunteers.  Therefore, at the conclusion of the Powerpoint, students were put to work in the classroom!  They were divided into small groups and rotated through several activities utilizing artifacts from Tern.

For example, here's an activity featuring actual marine animal eggs.  (They were infertile; they didn't hatch.  Therefore, it's possible for the US Fish and Wildlife Service to use them for education.  The eggs have been filled with plaster of paris, to strengthen them against accidental breakage.)

Most of the eggs are labeled with their birds' identifying, 4-letter code; two are not...or three, since you can't see the whole code for the egg on the right.  

Egg Challenge:  Of those three, which one belongs to the Laysan Albatross, Mōlī?  Which is the store-bought chicken egg?  ...and which one belongs to the Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle, Honu?  (Hint: reptile eggs don't have [much] calcium in them).  Honor system: don't peek until you're ready, but the answers are at the end of this post.

THAT can't be a Laysan Albatross, a Mōlī?!  Your're right; it's a stuffed toy.  Imagine how much bigger the REAL albatross parents are who laid this egg?

JMacaulay took this picture of a pair of adult Mōlī.

 Here's an activity about the Great Frigatebird's wingspan-->

Challenge: Place the Great Frigatebird (GRFR; ʻIwa) skeleton and both sets of wing bones in the proper places to represent a living bird's actual wingspan!

The students have put the GRFR skeleton in the middle of the 7' long fabric strip.  Now, can they correctly arrange the wing bones?

YES THEY CAN!  The answer sheet, which was hidden under a paper taped to the classroom's front board, confirmed their effort.  Wow, that ʻiwa has a chicken-size body and a hang-glider wingspan!

Back at the end of May "A Busy Time at Kānemilohaʻi" was posted.  Mark Sullivan's photo shows a particularly disturbing example of a Honu with marine debris, a porthole, around its neck:

Here's the porthole again.  Now it's being used to help students make the mind and heart connection to what marine debris actually does to life in the ocean. 

How does it feel to be caught in marine debris? Well, how does it feel to have this rubber band around your hand?!

The class period ended with everyone feeling a little closer to Tern Island Field Station and the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.  Barb and Wes look forward to "bringing the place to the people" in other classrooms around the state of Hawaiʻi!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Egg Challenge Answers:

• Laysan Albatross -- the BIG one on the right
• Chicken -- in the top-right corner of the egg carton
• Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle -- bottom-left in the carton

Life on a Remote Island -- No access!

Aloha kakou!

Sorry there haven't been posts in a while -- internet service has been out at Tern Island for about a month now, is likely not to be restored until December, when two technicians will ride out with us to Tern, to fix the satellite dish.  Unfortunate for those of us waiting on the blog -- tougher on those living on the island!

We want to take this time to thank the folks out there -- Meg Duhr Schultz (manager), Scott Sturdivant (volunteer) and Erin Kawakami (volunteer).  They have been working like mad without a break since June, and will remain on-island until December.  The lack of internet makes life on Tern seem much more remote than otherwise.  They still can contact their families and others via satellite phone.

From left to right:  Erin Kawakami, Scott Sturdivant, and Meg Duhr Schultz.  They've been working very hard to revegetate areas that have been denuded by human traffic.  They've also ramped up our native plant propagation facilities, working on methods to increase our native plant community and shrubs on the island.  This work is extremely important in providing adequate nesting sites and cover for young chicks.

We also thank their families for their patience, understanding, and for sharing these three folks for a six month stint on Tern.  Its always a challenge for loved ones -- We appreciate your sacrifice so that they can do all the good they are doing out there.

They have let us know that they are doing well, and the first kaʻupu (black-footed albatross) have shown up on Tern this week!  The first mōlī (Laysan albatross) should return in the next week or two.  Soon they will have thousands of albatross returned to find their mate, dance their dance, and begin nesting.  A very exciting time!

Ka'upu (black-footed albatross).  Photo by Sarah Youngren (2011)

Meg, Scott and Erin have been busy with native plant work, but also rescuing Hawaiian monk seals trapped behind the seawall, reinforcing the seawall, doing regular seabird monitoring, figuring how to minimize loss of shrubs from turtle digging, and following Erin's white tern research.  We appreciate all their hard work, which will have an impact for years to come.

The next crew is beginning to gear up for the winter season, switching off with the summer crew in December.  This season will be very short:  December to March, because FWS is shifting their schedules from Dec-June to March-September.  We'll have lots of adventures during that time.  Starting next week, we'll begin following this crew's preparation for the island.  It will be the start of many long-term and new monitoring and research projects. 

We'll also be featuring the exploits of our Education and Outreach Volunteer, Barbara Mayer, our NOAA outreach partner Wes Byers, and our classroom partners.  Barb and Wes recently visited Lānaʻi High School, sharing some information about the Monument, talking story, and learning about the student's limu project.

We're lucky enough to work with some truly amazing Hawaiian classrooms, like ʻIolani Elementary School on Oʻahu, and Lānaʻi High School on Lānaʻi.  Our volunteers are matched with each class, and each has their own project -- from following bird nests, to designing artificial nests, to statistical analyses of data.  We're so happy to have this partnership, and the kids really inspire us (and teach us the value of sharing and enthusiasm).  Barb will tell you more about the Lānaʻi trip and our work with other classes as we go along this season.

We look forward to another season on Tern Island -- and more photos for the blog!

A hui hou!
paula

'Iolani School, Turtle Diggings and the Oscar Elton Sette

A busy couple of weeks!

We had a GREAT time skyping with JoAnn Stepien's class at 'Iolani School on O'ahu --  Thanks to 'Iolani School teacher JoAnn Stepien and FWS Volunteer Barb Mayer, joined by NOAA E&O Coordinator Wes Byers.  Take a look at pictures Wes put onto his Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument Facebook page.  And a most special thanks to the students!!!  'Iolani School's Marine Debris Awareness class welcomed us for a visit last week.  The visit included map study, dissection of albatross boluses, skyping with Tern volunteer Erin Kawakami, looking at marine debris collected off a turtle entrapped at French Frigate Shoals, and other activities.  

JoAnn Stepien's Marine Debris Awareness class at 'Iolani School on O'ahu, pays attention while FWS Tern Volunteer Barbar Mayer leads discussion on Tern Island.  Barbara brought albatross boluses, bones and eggs, as well as marine debris from entrapments, for the class to experience these firsthand.

Students skyped live with FWS Volunteer Erin Kawakami on Tern Island.    Erin is from the Big Island, and has wanted to visit the Northwestern islands her whole life.  One of these kids could be a volunteer, or perhaps the manager, not too long from now!!!

Our next big news at Kānemilohaʻi:  808 Nesting Honu on East Island alone!!!!  This has been a record breaking year, with more nesting turtles than ever recorded before -- the next best year was 589 nesting turtles.  

Honu 808!!!  This was the last of the nesting turtles identified by the turtle techs this field season.  If you look REALLY closely, you can see the '808' on her carapace, with a ying-yang for the '0'.  She is basking on Tern Island in this photo; you can see some turtle eggs she inadvertently dug up in the sand.  We'll expect another big nesting season in three or four years, with lower counts in between.

Balance in all things:  Unfortunately, with so many turtles digging, they have also dug up a large portion of the shrubs along the south side of  Tern Island.  This will probably speed up erosion along the south side, as well as eliminate a good deal of shrub habitat, of which we have none to spare.  (Note the boobies refusing to give up this bush!)  If the decision is ever made to permanently decommission the runway at Tern Island, we will plant shrubs in that area, providing a significant gain in shrub habitat.  Until then, we'll try to encourage both natural and propagated beach naupaka across the island.

More turtle digging means fewer Tristram's storm petrel burrows.  Turtle nest-building has removed a significant portion of the Tristram storm petrel area on Tern Island this year, moving all the way up into our reproductive monitoring plots.  We've been moving the nest boxes back onto solid ground several times this year, but the turtles keep digging further and further back, digging up burrows and tossing nesting boxes aside.  Tristram's usually return to the same burrow to nest; we hope to keep the pairs that were nesting in this area by increasing the number of artificial nest boxes.  Burrowing birds have a difficult time without shrubs to consolidate the soil, and protect the burrows from crushing by albatross, turtles, and humans.

As the turtle nesting season winds down, the turtle team wrapped up their field camp.  The whole gang pitched in to help them take down camp. They spent the next few days cleaning all the field gear, and packing it away for the next season.

The Amazing Summer Team at Tern gathers on the porch to show their muscle!  From top left to right:  Brendan Hurley,  Shawn Farry,  Ben Cook, Irene Nurzia Hamburg; second row:  Erin Kawakami, Scott Sturdivant, and Meg Duhr Shultz; bottom row:  Tyler Bogardus, Paula Hartzell, and Mark Sullivan.

The fall crew -- Scott Sturdivant, Erin Kawakami and Meg Duhr Schultz -- have started on their native plant propagation and planting projects, planning what they will be doing over the coming months.  So far they have created some additional catchment areas for fresh water for their plants, and outlined where they will be concentrating their efforts -- in addition to all of the regular bird monitoring they will be doing.  They've also been finding the first of the turtle hatchlings, and returning them to the sea.  (Some hatchlings get lost and confused in the vegetation.)  More from them in the coming months!

Above:  Erin Kawakami and Scott Sturdivant work on creating catchment for their native plant propagation projects. 

The summer crew splits up --  Erin, Meg and Scott (at right) get ready to say goodbye to Irene and Tyler (at left).  The crew arrived together in June.  While the turtle crew heads out until next year, the bird crew will stay on Tern until December.

Hugs goodbye.

One of the small boats off the NOAA Research Vessel Oscar Elton Sette arrives, bringing fuel for us to run our own boats.  Everything we use on Tern has to be delivered like this -- first on a large vessel from Honolulu, then on a tender from the ship to the island.  The Sette crew and scientists normally are performing marine research activities in the Monument; this time they are going up the Northwestern Island chain picking up the seal crews at the end of the field season.  The Sette will be back to Tern in a couple weeks to pick up our seal crew.  

Irene and Tyler leave with the NOAA Research Vessel Oscar Elton Sette crew.   They will ride up to Midway, and take a plane back to Honolulu.  Irene and Tyler worked some seriously long hours recording nesting sea turtles this year, and deserve such a great trip.  Thanks, crew!!!

So that's it for the news for now -- A hui hou, and see you next week! 

This week's gratuitous bird and sunset photos:

This is the life:  ʻĀ makaʻele (masked booby) chick relaxes on a coconut.  Masked boobies nest on open grounds, so do very well on all of the sandy islands in the atoll, as well as on Tern Island.  They have big fat wide feet, like people, for standing on the ground.

Gin Island spit.

Birds of Tern Island.

An ʻĀ wāwae (red-footed booby) chick.  This one has most of his feathers now -- although he retains his chick fuzz-hood.  Red-footed boobies nest in shrubs, and have red monkey-like hands (okay, feet really) which are agile and finger-like, for grasping branches.

La Perouse at sunset.

A Busy Time at Kānemilohaʻi

Shew, the past couple weeks have been busy!!!

CORAL:  FWS Volunteer Lindsey Kramer prodded us all out in the water at the crack of dawn, boating over to Shark Island (a couple miles from Tern Island) for early morning snorkels.  She wanted to be the first person to witness cauliflower coral spawning in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.  And guess what?  It took a snorkeling a couple mornings in the frigid waters of April, and then a couple mornings in the warmer waters of May -- but she did it!!!  We were able to be the very first witnesses of cauliflower coral spawning on May 18th, with more spawning occurring on May 19th.  Way to go, Lindsey!!!

Photos by Paula L. Hartzell

SEALS:  We've had some gains and losses in the ʻilio o ke kai world...  Some new pups, and some pups are gone. One nice event occurred when one of the seal crew, Ben Cook, was camping out on Gin Island last week.  (The seal crew guys take turns staying out on the islands to watch out for the pups.)  A first time seal mom give birth – and then as the mom and pup failed to bond.  The pup wandered off looking for the mom, who was fairly unresponsive.  The pup then got caught and battered in the surf.  Ben was able to rescue the pop, and reunite the pair for the first nursing, which is the critical bonding period for these seals.  The new mom accepted the pup, and it looks like they’re doing well. The pup likely would have died without intervention, so we’re really glad Ben was out there.  

A new first-time mom (above) had problems bonding with her pup.  The pup got 'lost', when NMFS staff Ben Cook intervened, reuniting the pair.  The new mom accepted the pup, and it looks like they're doing well (below).  The pup would likely have died without the intervention, so we're really glad Ben was out there.   

Pups at Kānemilohaʻi face enormous challenges to make it through the first two years.  Insufficient forage for the moms mean less milk and shorter time to weaning for the pups.  The seal pups here are smaller as a consequence, even at birth: the biggest seal pup born here weighs less than the smallest pup born in the Main Hawaiian Islands -- Can you even imagine?!  They're also subject to high rates of shark predation over the past decade or so -- It may be that the sharks are also facing changes in forage, or perhaps they are attracted by the growing turtle population.  For whatever reason, we've already lost 4 of 10 pups so far, and its only the first month of the birthing season.  The seal team literally has to fight for the species one pup at a time!

OUTREACH:  We have to send out a special thanks to our new Education and Outreach Coordinator, Barbara Mayer, who has been working on curriculum for teachers to use this Fall.  An established curriculum and lesson plans will help teachers -- who are already overworked -- have an easier time working information on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and Kānemilohaʻi into their classrooms.  That should be great fun for the kids!  Barbara is also working with ʻIolani School for a Marine Debris class this summer -- so those of us on Tern are also busy collecting some marine debris, empty bird eggs, and the like to send back for the class.   She's also the one responsible for making the blog more organized and functional.  Mahalo nui e Barb!

This turtle had a ring of plastic -- waste from a boat -- caught around its neck.  The seal crew were able to catch the turtle, remove the ring, and release the turtle unharmed.  We saved the ring, which will be sent back to Honolulu on the next ship, for use in education and outreach.  Photo by Mark Sullivan.

TURTLES:  We counted 412 basking turtles on East Island this week!!!   This is fantastic -- and pretty amazing, considering the whole island is about 200 meters (650 feet) long!  

Honu on East Island.  We counted a remarkable 412 basking turtles at one time on East Island on Thursday this week.  Photo by Paula L. Hartzell.

Over 90% of the honu reproductive effort occurring at French Frigate Shoals.  The health of any species is dependent by many factors, and good management requires multi-faceted action.  The honu have benefited from very effective management in reducing fisheries-related mortality, some great luck (for the turtles anyway) in the increase in invasive algae species in Hawaiʻi, strong public support and wide emergency response in the Main Hawaiian Islands, along with the benefit of a totally protected nesting ground in the Monument – this threatened species’ population has been steadily increasing since 1973.  

BIRDS:  

We completed our first estimate of the ʻewaʻewa (sooty terns) on Tern Island.  There are about 133,000 adults and 32,500 eggs on island now -- That is one big bunch of ankle biters.

ʻEwaʻewa (sooty tern).   Now multiply this by 133,000 on an island a half mile long by a quarter mile wide.  Now imagine each and every one pecking your head and ankles.  :-)  Photo by Paula L. Hartzell.

How much effort do we spend monitoring birds on Tern Island?  We closely monitor about 1,500 individual nests each week!  That's in addition to all of the island-wide surveys, banding, entrapment walks, and special projects.

The last Tristram’s storm petrel fledged from artificial nest boxes this week!  FWS Volunteer Sarah Youngren has documented a strong relationship in patterns in weight gain and loss immediately prior to fledging, allowing us to accurately identify when a chick is ready to fledge.  We have made enormous strides in development of consistent, replicable, quantitative method for monitoring TRSP; we have vastly reduced the number of human-crushed burrows; and look forward to development of adult population monitoring next year, thanks to Sarah’s hard work over then last two years – and on into next year.  Good work, Sarah!


BUILDING NEWS:  FWS Volunteer has constructed a new shade-house on the back-porch, and is adding a roof to our front porch.  The shade-house will be used to grow native plants, which is sorely needed to give a boost to the shrubs on Tern Island.  Birds need the shrubs for nesting habitat, shade, and to consolidate soil around burrows.  Thanks, Curt, for getting all this built!

TEAM TERN:

While the bosses were away on the outer islands, the crew found a large rope mass floating in the water near the southeast end of Tern.  It took everyone working together to get it out.  (Apparently they all missed the memo that youʻre supposed to slack when the bosses are gone.)  From left to right:  Brendan Hurley (NMFS), James Macaulay (FWS), Kristina Dickson (FWS), Shawn Sullivan (NMFS), and Ben Cook (NMFS).  Photo by Sarah Youngren (FWS).

GRATUITOUS PRETTY (OR SILLY) PHOTOS

ʻĀ (red-footed booby) chick and its parent squash in for room on the nest.  Photo by Sarah Youngren.

Photo by Paula L. Hartzell.

Laughing kaʻupu.  (Black-footed albatross.)  The chicks have their  adult feathers on their bodies now, and getting some pretty funny hairstyles up top.  

Brown booby contemplates a fine day off of East Island.  Photo by Mark Sullivan.

Lindsey Kramer (top) and Mark Sullivan (bottom) waiting for coral to spawn.  

Sometimes you just have to step on your family..... An adult masked booby protects its chick.  Some might say masked boobies are a little overprotective -- A snowsuit in the tropics?!  Photo by Paula L. Hartzell.

THANKS to all of our readers, to the staff in Honolulu, and to our family and friends who support us.  We are very proud to be able to watch and protect these special resources, that belong to each and every one of us.