#3 - Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program at French Frigate Shoals

photo credit P. Leary

Today's topic from the Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program's Facebook Page: The island that disappeared.

One of the factors contributing to the decline of the French Frigate Shoals seal population is the loss of important breeding habitat. Over the course of about 20 years, the low-lying, well-vegetated Whale-Skate Island disappeared. It was an important breeding site for monk seals, turtles, and numerous birds. 

 It isn't certain what caused the disappearance, probably a combination of sea level rise, currents and storms. The loss of Whale-Skate may be a sign of things to come based on climate predictions. This picture shows the submerged sand and reef of what was once an important monk seal pupping site. 

'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.

The times, they are a changing....

The field season moves along, both for people and the wildlife....

Although turtle nesting is slowing down, there are still lots of turtles nesting, we are definitely past the peak of the nesting season.  We are starting to see just a few of the first turtle hatchlings -- probably from nests laid in late April or early May.  Expect to see lots of turtle hatchling pictures in the months to come!!

A honu nesting on Gin Island.  The white spot on its back includes the temporary numbers which help the Turtle Technicians Tyler and Irene keep track of who-is-who.  Each turtle nests several times during the season.  This gal nested on both East and Gin Islands this season.  

About 97% of the ka'upu (black-footed albatross) and about 72% of the mōlī (Laysan albatross) chicks have fledged -- It's funny to have only a handful of chicks left on island, after having thousands of albatross on the island since last December.  We won't see these chicks again until they're old enough to come back as sub-adults to learn the proper way to court and find a partner for nesting.

The first bird to nest in the deactivated runway was a brown noddy, on July 6, 2011. Although many birds have always used the runway for resting and socializing, this is the first nest to be brooded in the runway proper.  We now have several BRNO nesting in the runway.  This is exciting news, as use of the runway area provides over 30,000 square meters of open nesting opportunity for seabirds – about 30% of Tern Island. We will be monitoring wildlife use and natural regeneration of vegetation in the runway over the coming months.

Our first nest brooded in the runway!  (You can see how her feathers pooch out under her belly, where the egg is.)  This noio (brown noddy) was the first, but others have followed in her footprints.  We now have all stages of brown noddy reproduction on island -- courtship feeding, eggs, small and large chicks.  Noio chicks fledge when they're about six weeks old, and then are still fed for a couple more weeks.  Noio are more than happy to jab you in the head if you come too close to their nests, so we've all taken to walking hunched over and dodging...

Natural regeneration of vegetation on the runway.  Considering this process began at the start of the dry season, and that we aren't allowed to scarify the surface (in case they want to reactivate the runway some day), we are pretty excited about the speed of vegetation coverage so far, which appears to be (not unexpectedly) dominated by Portulaca spp.  We will learn a lot watching the vegetation spread over the area, providing about 30% more nesting habitat for birds that nest in the open.

The 'new' crew -- Meg, Scott and Erin -- have settled in, and are home on Tern Island now.  Meg Duhr Schultz is the new Assistant Manager at Tern, and will be taking over the blog after Paula leaves in August.  Meg just completed her Bachelor's degree from Oregon State University, and has worked as a seabird monitor for several field seasons.  Scott is from Fontana, California, and will be doing both maintenance and biological work while volunteering here.  Scott brings knowledge and experience gained from working in the Catalina Islands.  Erin is from the Big Island of Hawai'i; she has a lot of experience to lend on marine, coastal wildlife and plant propagation specific to Hawai'i.  This is the first time out here for all three of them, so they are learning a lot from the existing crew, before they take over on their own this fall.  These three will have quite the adventure this fall as they lead the atoll's conservation efforts from September to December!

p.s.  Thanks to Frank C!  Nice to know someone is following our activities -- We appreciate all the positive comments.

Fledging Albatross, Baby Seals, and Immersion Suits

"I'm flying!!!"  Well, almost.  The kaʻupu chicks have started to fledge this week -- We've seen several taking off from Tern and Trig Islands.  They'll continue fledging over the next month.  The mōlī (Laysan albatross) will start fledging in the next couple weeks as well.  These birds will spend the next several years at sea, not returning to land until they are ready to start learning how to be parents.  Most of these birds will return directly to Tern.  Its been very exciting watching them grow up!  Photo by Paula L. Hartzell.

Team Tern on East:  From left to right, Dan Rapp, Sarah Youngren, Kristina Dickson and James Macaulay banding black-footed albatross (ka'ula) chicks on East Island.  We are excited about banding on the outer islands of the atoll, because this information will help us better understand how these birds adapt to changes in island geomorphology, storm events and tsunamis.

An ʻilio o ke kai mom and pup move up on land to sleep for the night.  A healthy mom will stay with her pup throughout the nursing season, never leaving the pup to feed.  A fat mom is a good mom, because she births fatter pups and nurses them longer.  Attentive moms are also more successful at protecting their pups from sharks.  Photo, with La Perouse Pinnacle in the background, by NMFS crew Mark Sullivan.

View of Gin Island from Little Gin Island.  The NMFS crew has been camping on Gin for two weeks straight, in an attempt to monitor and protect pups on that island. Can you imagine staying on such a small low island overnight by yourself?!?  Photo by Paula Hartzell.

Lindsey Kramer and James Macaulay cheerfully pump gas into -- and back out of -- the Spam.  Sometimes you think you're going somewhere, sometimes not.... But they kept a smile on their faces regardless.  You never know what the conditions or challenges will be, so you have to be willing to roll with the punches...

Safety Training!!! The team practices with immersion suits... Kinda funny on a tropical island!!!  We need to know how to use the suits, though, if we have to evacuate via boat for long periods of time, or at night, when hypothermia is a real possibility.  Still, it was pretty funny to see the honu swimming up to check out the bright orange people....  Here the team practices making a raft with their bodies, for an ʻinjuredʻ person to rest on top, out of the water.  Practice makes perfect -- especially when you need to be able to rescue yourself, even when the situation is scary.  It is very important to be knowledgeable and practiced at emergency procedure when youʻre this far out at sea.

Sarah demonstrates relaxing in an immersion suit...a tricky proposition at best.  :-)  

Beauty and the Beast:  Fratricide in the MABO world.  Masked boobies, ʻA makaʻele, have two eggs as insurance in case they lose one.  If both eggs hatch, either the parent or the other chick will most often kick the weak one out of the nest to die (and hence why twins are rare).  Mark Sullivan caught this event on camera -- Nature is often incredibly beautify, and horribly harsh at the same time.

Dancing with Manta Rays.  Kristina Dickson and a manta ray enjoy underwater ballet.  Gorgeous photo by Sarah Youngren.

Me!

Happy seal pup.  Photo by Mark Sullivan.

"Give me your ankle!!!" [Sooty Tern, ʻEwaʻewa]

Seals and Birds

ʻIlio o ke kai (Hawaiian monk seal).  Photo taken by FWS Volunteer Kristina Dickson while snorkeling.

NMFS seal staff Shawn Farry pushes the boat off from a small outer island in the atoll.  Photo by Kristina Dickson.

FWS Volunteers band their 100th albatross chick today -- KZ00 (ʻCuzcoʻ)!  From left to right:  Kristina Dickson, Sarah Youngren, Lindsey Kramer, James Macaulay, and Dan Rapp.  Photo by Curt Youngren.

FWS volunteers gather about 750 lbs of marine debris from East Island.  Clockwise from left:  Dan Rapp, Paula Hartzell, Jimmy Macaulay, Kristina Dickson and Lindsey Kramer.  Photo by Sarah Youngren.

Kristina Dickson dives through the La Perouse cave.  Photo by Mark Sullivan.

Runway chick:  One of several chicks who have made their home in the runway.  We don't have flights in the summer because of so many sooty terns, or we'd have to move these guys out of the way.

cloud of sooty terns

Exercising around the sooty terns can be a bit of a challenge...as Curt Youngren demonstrates.

James Macaulay and Kristina Dickson band a red-tailed tropicbird.

Dan really DOES have birds on his brain.  Sarah shaves a bird in Dan Rapp's hair.  (Ah, social life on a remote island...)

NMFS staff Mark Sullivan prepares for tagging a seal -- Those are seal tags on the rim of his hat, while he prepares antiseptic and gloves.  Photo by Kristina Dickson.

Let's play the stick game!  This young ʻiwa would buzz me ceaselessly until I offered him my camera as sacrifice.  Photo by Paula Hartzell.

A love tern brings some edible affection for its chick.  Photo by Mark Sullivan.

Quiet time on Tern... Dan Rapp enjoys some moments of solitude during the daily entrapment walk around the island.  Photo by Sarah Youngren.

Aloha kakahiaka!

This has been a great seal week -- Some of the seals had a romantic Valentines Day (really!), and we are seeing lots of nice, fat females.  Nice fat females means nice fat babies, and enough fat for the moms to feed them throughout weaning. (The moms don't eat from the time they give birth, until after they wean, so lots of body fat is essential.)  Go fat seals!

This nice fat momma seal is 18 years old, and has had 7 pups so far.  Go Momma!

   It has been rain, rain, rain for quite a while now -- so we race out for a quick snorkel whenever possible.

Little toby guards his junk.

White-tipped reef shark at a distance.

We also had some water-based training with the Miller board.  This type of safety practice is very useful in figuring out what we can and cannot do - and so we all feel more comfortable handling this equipment when we actually need to evacuate a hurt or unconscious person in the water.


Water-based Miller board practice.  FWS Volunteers (clockwise) Kristina Dickson, Melinda Conners, Dan Rapp, and James Macaulay move scenario victim Sarah Youngren safety through the water towards shore.  La Perouse is visible in the background.



Oops!  Kinda got that one backwards.... Now her head is down...  Important lesson that we won't forget next time!



A successful rescue!!  Kristina (in wetsuit) demonstrates the proper way to lift, while the others demonstrate improper lifting technique.  Way to go, Team!  :-)

And last but not least... the Photo of the Week:

Joy on the runway.  Dan Rapp expresses his enthusiasm.  Photo by Sarah Youngren.