Midway Tsunami Links: new...and quite old

Aloha!  Rather than write my own update about tsunami-related news, I've decided to link you directly to sources reporting on Midway, as well as other atolls in the NW Hawaiian Islands:

• 3/28, Tsunamis drag newborn monk seal away from mother -- an interview with Cynthia Vanderlip,  Kure Atoll field supervisor and biologist with the Hawai`i Department of Land & Natural Resource
• 3/28, "Tens of Millions" in tsunami damage at Papahanaumokuakea --  Cynthia recounts her night-time, rooftop experience of hearing the tsunami's approach; USFWS ornithologist Dr. Beth Flint speculates that "...the tsunami may have killed every Laysan Finch on Pearl & Hermes."
• 3/28, Interagency Team Conducts Aerial and Ground Survey of Tsunami Damage in Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument -- includes the PMNM press release behind the two articles listed above, plus post-tsunami aerial photos of various NW Hawaiian Islands
• 3/27, Getting back to Normal -- Pete Leary, Midway Atoll's resident USFWS Biologist, continues his reporting on the Atoll's tsunami aftermath, sharing wonderfully informative photos
• 3/26, Japanese Tsunami Aftermath on Midway Atoll -- nature photographer, Tony Ernst, recounts his experience as a visitor to Midway when the tsunami hit.  He energetically became a wildlife-salvage-volunteer! 
• 3/26, Wildlife workers still reeling after trauma -- a particularly vivid account about their tsunami experience from volunteers who were on Laysan Atoll

And look at this aerial shot of Midway's main street almost 60 years ago! - photosafaris.com/midway-atoll/post-wwii-history/ --

Midway Island Flooded by 1952 Kamchatka Tsunami Tsunami Generated by Earthquake of Nov. 4, 1952, Kamchatka Peninsula, USSR. Flooded street resulting from tsunami on Midway Island. The tsunami was generated by a magnitude 8.2 earthquake on Kamchatka where it caused severe damage. The tsunami then struck Midway about 3,000 km away, the Hawaiian Islands 5,200 km away, and other areas in the Pacific. Midway reportedly was covered with 1 m of water. Photograph Credit: U.S. Navy.

Marine Debris INSIDE Albatross

Here's a post by me: Auntie Moana Laal--

Adult albatross ready to feed its chick

Have you ever had a really bad stomach ache?

Have you ever had something stuck in your throat?

Imagine having both at once, and maybe you'll have an idea of what it's like for our albatross chicks to get too much marine debris in their stomachs!

It's pretty awful!  You can read about it in a reader's theater script about me "saving the day."  I won't spoil the ending by telling you how I saved the day, but I'm sure glad I did.  My nephew Kawika, Jr. almost died from too much plastic in his stomach!

Laysan Albatross carcass filled with plastic marine debris.

You see, albatross chicks are accidentally fed plastic by their parents, who have accidentally picked up plastic marine debris that's floating on the ocean.  I've made the mistake myself.  Sometimes a floating cigarette lighter looks like squid, and I eat the lighter.  Another time maybe one of my favorite foods, flying fish eggs, are stuck to a floating plastic bottle cap, and I swallow both.  Then, if I don't know I've made a mistake, I accidentally pass the plastic to my chick during feeding.  Auwe!

Let me tell you about a sad but important video made by my friend Paulo Maurin.   His 5-minute video "306 Punches" is about a Laysan Albatross chick on Kure Atoll that probably did die from swallowing too much plastic.  As you watch the video you see Cynthia Vanderlip, the Field Station Manager of Kure, performing an autopsy on the chick...and then you see how much plastic was inside that albatross!

Like I said, we saved my nephew Kawika.  The good news is that most albatross chicks don't die; they grow up to become adults, like me.  We can live for more than half a century, flying for hours over the beautiful ocean...but we need help.  Learn how you can help by visiting my cousin Makana, at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Aloha; mahalo for your concern!

Kure Atoll: Part of the `Ohana

Hawaiian Islands

Midway Atoll isn't the only island northwest of the populated Hawaiian Islands.  There's a whole chain of islands.  A few are rocky, but most are sandy atolls stretching for more than 1200 miles away from Honolulu.

About 30 million years ago a volcano was built over Hawai`i's hot spot.  No one was here to see it, but there must have been quite a show when the volcano finally erupted above the ocean's surface.  There would have been huge explosions of red-hot lava, clouds of seawater steam, and blobs of pumice shooting out in all directions.  Wow!

As millions of years passed, the volcano began to change; it slowly grew older and older.  The volcano was part of the Pacific Plate, a piece of the Earth's crust, and the Plate was moving away from the hot spot.  The volcano had no more lava building it, so it stopped growing.

Also, the wind, rain and ocean waves hit the volcano and began to break it down.  Incredibly huge chunks of the volcano, the size of buildings and bigger, broke off and tumbled into the depths of the ocean.  The volcano was getting smaller and smaller

But the volcano had developed a lei of coral around it.  As the volcano itself got smaller and smaller, the coral lei grew larger and larger.  The coral always grew enough to stay just below the ocean surface.

This drawing of an atoll represents both Midway and Kure Atolls

Finally the volcano disappeared beneath the sea surface, and coral sand started to fill in on top of it.  Seawater came in and formed a shallow lagoon.  The volcano had become what we call an "atoll."  And this 30-million-year-old atoll is Kure Atoll (say "cure-ay"), the oldest land mass in the Hawaiian Islands.  Kure is Midway's older sister, about 50 miles away to the northwest.

Kure Atoll is owned by the state of Hawai`i.  Jason Misaki and Syd Kawahakui, Jr. work in the state's Division of Forestry and Wildlife within the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR.)    Jason and Syd will spend 3 days on Kure to see for themselves that Kure is kept as natural a place as possible...that its resources are kept intact.

satellite view of Kure Atoll

Visiting Kure means a lot to Jason and Syd because both are kama`aina, born and raised in Hawai`i.  They truly are stewards of their homeland.  Jason comes from Kualapu`u, Moloka`i, and grew up in a family that worked for conservation on his island.  Jason earned a degree in botany with a minor in environmental studies at the University of Hawai`i, Mānoa.  He has the job of Wildlife Manager, and is supervisor of the Kure Atoll project.

Syd was born and raised in Waialua on O`ahu; he attended Kahuku High School, graduating from Kamehameha Schools.  He earned a double major at UH, Mānoa in Hawaiian Studies and Hawaiian Language.  As a young man, Syd began 10 years of volunteer service with the Protect Kaho`olawe `Ohana (PKO.)  He became what is called an Access Guide, or Kua.  Kua is the Hawaiian word for backbone.  Just as your backbone supports your whole body, so does a Kua support PKO.

Here's a picture of Jason (left) and Syd (right.)  The picture on the right shows Syd following proper Hawaiian protocol by blowing the pū (shell.)  The small boat will take them to NOAA's ship, Hi`ialakai, which is outside Midway Atoll in deeper water.  The ship will travel overnight, taking Jason and Syd to Kure.  They will take these 3 values with them:

• aloha `aina (love of the land)
• mālama `aina (taking care of the land)
• ho`oulu `aina (re-growing the land)

Just as Kure and Midway are part of the Hawaiian chain, an `ohana of islands, so we people are an `ohana of stewards, or care-givers, for our land.  All our best wishes go with Jason and Syd!

Dolphin Survey

Here are the scientists working, while I took a short video, "Spinner Dolphins at Midway Atoll."  Cynthia Vanderlip (above) and her crew conducted a dolphin survey while visiting Midway, before traveling onto Kure Atoll for a summer of work. As we approached the SW channel leading from the deep blue sea into Midway's shallow, turquoise-colored lagoon...there they were! LOTS of Spinner Dolphins, Nai`a in Hawaiian, or Stenella longirostris!  For an hour or two we observed their behavior. Cynthia took pictures; individual dolphins can be identified by distinctive markings on their dorsal fins.

Ilana Nimz (left) used a special instrument to record the depth of water;

and Matt Saunter (right) logged the data onto the clipboard data table.