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!

What's a Bolus Burrito?

UPDATE, May 10, 2011:  

In response to a comment that accompanied this post last June, I gave a source for boluses for classroom dissections.  That source is no longer active.  The Fish and Wildlife Service currently has the bolus dissemination project on hold until further notice.  We all hope that one day FWS can start up the collection and dissemination of boluses again, after the Refuge has a chance to complete tsunami recovery projects and a Visitor Services position is filled for Midway Atoll.  Iʻll certainly add to this post as information becomes available.

In the meantime, as part of a collaborative education partnership, a non-profit organization Oikonos is distributing a limited number of boluses to school groups.  The Oikonos website has a wealth of educational activities!  Contact Michelle Hester who will connect you with the albatross bolus coordinator for more details.

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No...you wouldn't want to eat a bolus burrito!

As albatross grow up, they begin to be able to toss up out of their stomach any objects they can't digest.  (See FOAM's "Albatross Barf" video.)  These indigestible objects are tightly packed into what's called a bolus. You've probably heard of fur balls that cats make, and maybe you've known that owls get rid of mouse fur and bones in pellets; so a bolus is like a cat fur ball or owl pellet.

photo by Mike Neal

Albatross feed on flying fish eggs and squid. Squid are mostly digestible, except for their hard mouths, called beaks, that feel like your finger nail. Flying fish eggs are completely digestible, but they're often attached to natural objects -- like floating sticks or volcanic rocks called pumice -- which are definitely not digestible. So albatross come equipped to toss up boluses to get rid of these unwanted items.

Nowadays, many boluses have plastic in addition to squid beaks, sticks and pumice. The picture on the top left shows pieces of plastic, fishing line, a bottle cap, and even a toothbrush in a loosely packed bolus! The bolus on the right is much more tightly packed.

It is educational to see what a real bolus looks like; it helps people understand why they need to be more careful how they get rid of their trash. Many teachers ask Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge for boluses for their students to dissect, or take apart. Take a look at bolus dissection activities on the Oikonos website, or a recent dissection on FOAM's post "Marine Debris: Aunty Moana's Little, Green, Square Things.

photo by Mike Neal

That's why Marty and I are making "bolus burritos."  We put a bolus on a piece of scrap paper that's being reused as a paper tortilla. Then we roll up the bolus in the paper and fold in the paper ends --> a bolus burrito!  Now we label the burrito with the date when the bolus was collected and from which island of the Atoll it came.  How many bolus burritos are in the picture, not even counting the boluses in the plastic bag by my right foot?! Lots! -- all for teachers and their students!

Marine Debris: Little, Green, Square Things -- ANSWER!

In an earlier post from June 20, I told you I'd make a new post if I found out what the little, green tubes are that I was finding as marine debris and in a bolus.  Well, here's the new post!

Researchers and concerned citizens in Japan and Hawai`i have emailed us explaining that the little (~1.5 cm, or ~half-inch) tubes are used as "spacers" in the Japanese oyster aquaculture industry.  The tubes are placed between empty scallops, as you can see from my sketch on the left, and then lines of the shells are hung in seawater.  Baby oysters attach to the scallop shells and grow.

Sometimes these spacers must come loose and float out to sea.  Then, once in awhile, an albatross swallows a spacer as they fish for food in the North Pacific.  Spacers are carried to Midway Atoll both when albatross throw up their boluses while standing in fields on Midway and when lone spacers float ashore on Midway's beaches.

photo by Y. Ohkura

But let's not forget that sometimes U.S.-made plastic pellets*, incorrectly called "nurdles" (pictured on the right,) often wash up on beaches in Japan.  Trash from one part of the world becomes marine debris in another part of the world.  By sharing information, we can work together to solve the marine debris problem! 

(*Plastic pellets are small, plastic spheres that are melted and used to make all sorts of plastic products.)

Marine Debris: Auntie Moana's Little, Green, Square Thing

Kden, there's been FOAM posts about marine debris from Uncle Ulua, Barb and Kahiko Ladu.  Now listen to me.  We albatross have plenny problems with marine debris.

fresh bolus from a Laysan Albatross

In fact, my own family had a near-death because of the rubbish.  My brother's granddaughter's cousin's son, Junya (Junior) Kai, almost died of dehydration because of marine debris!  His dad Kawika (my cousin's...oh neva mind) didn't know how to tell the difference between da kine food and floating plastic.  So, Kawika brought back marine debris, instead of squid and fish eggs, to feed Junya.  Well, me and his wife, Mōlī, gave him a talking to.  Now Kawika knows, and everything's OK.  You can read about the family's story in "Auntie Moana (yup: dat's me!) Saves The Day", a readers theater script that Barb wrote.

dissected Laysan Albatross bolus

Anyway, guess what?  Today my neighbor coughed up a bolus.  (A bolus is sorta like what those birds, owls, cough up -- a pellet, which has lotsa mouse dem bones.  We albatross cough up a bolus that normally has squid beaks and maybe some pumice, floating volcanic rocks, in it.)  These 2 pictures show what the bolus our neighbor coughed up looked like, both fresh when it first came up, and den after Barb opened it up, what you call "dissected" it.  Notice any marine debris?  Duh, yeah!  But the good news is that our neighbor coughed it all up; no more in his stomach!

In the 2nd picture, all the plastic da kine is on the left, and all the squid beaks and natural stuff is on the right.  Plenny junk, huh?  But look at that little, greenish, square t'ing in the upper left corner.  Anybody know what that is? ............

Death of a Laysan Duck

In the post right before this one I explained that last week a Laysan Duck had been seen swimming with a plastic ring around its neck in Monument Seep on Eastern Island.  I am sorry to have to tell you that the duck was found dead this morning.  The picture on the left shows the ring...but notice that the right-hand close-up shows the band is actually cut open.  Therefore, before you throw a plastic ring away in your trash, please cut it COMPLETELY in half, meaning: into 2 pieces.  We've learned from this duck's death that even a ring which has been cut open can still kill wildlife!

But let me tell you some good news: ever since some of us Laysan Ducks were moved from Laysan Atoll to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in 2004 and again in '05, most of us have been doing very, very well.  Each sunrise brings the promise of positive changes for wildlife.

Marine Debris...in Freshwater

I spotted this Laysan Duck at Monument Seep on Eastern Island last week.  It has a plastic ring going around the back of its neck and through its mouth.  The ring could make it impossible for the duck to eat.  How did the ring get onto the duck? 

The ring was probably a piece of marine debris.  Marine debris is trash put into the ocean, either accidentally or on purpose, by people.  The `ōpala can be carried to Midway either by ocean currents or in the stomach of an albatross.  If the bird is lucky, it'll cough up the marine debris in a bolus.  (More about boluses later!)  Sometimes, if the bird is not so lucky, the albatross dies, and then the marine debris that the bird swallowed while alive is left on the ground after the bird rots.

However the plastic ring got here, once it was on Midway, it probably was blown or washed by rain into one of our freshwater ponds, called seeps (more about seeps later, too!)  Perhaps the ring floated over the duck's head as the bird surfaced from an underwater swim.

You probably have noticed that when you unscrew the cap from a plastic gallon milk jug, a ring is left around the neck of the jug.  That's the kind of ring I think this Laysan Duck has around his neck.

Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge is surveying the marine debris problem (that's ANOTHER topic that we'll do a FOAM post on later!) 

But can you please help, too?  Next time you open a container with a cap like that,  please cut the ring open! That way, if the ring does get in the ocean somehow, it won't wind up around a Laysan Duck's neck in far away Midway Atoll.  Mahalo for taking care of us!

Marine Debris Pickup on Midway's Turtle Beach

Petra (holding her data table) has been surveying Midway's Hawaiian Monk Seals and monitoring the births of their babies, called "pups."  Pups is a good name, especially since the seal's Hawaiian name is `Ilio-holo-i-ka-uaua, which means "dog that runs in rough water."  (scientific name -- Monachus schauinslandi)   

Because the pups sometimes like to play with objects washed up on beaches where the seals come to nurse with their mothers, Petra organized a specialized beach cleanup.  Our goal was to pick up anything that might entangle a playful Monk Seal, as well as other marine animals for that matter.  We worked on Turtle Beach, a favorite haul-out site for the seals.  (Check the "Midway Map" tab at the top of the page; Turtle Beach is along the north shore of Sand Island, to the east of the Old Seaplane Ramp.)  There certainly was a lot of marine debris! You can see Ray and Adam collecting bunches of it.  We piled it high in the vehicle, and Petra drove it away...

...to the marine debris center, where Adam helped her sort it.    Here's a close-up of one of the bins.

It was a lot of work, but we were happy to help, since we all love the Monk Seals, and want to do our best to help them survive!  The nets in the bin will most likely be transported to Honolulu, where they will be cut into smaller pieces.  Then they will be taken to Hawaiian Electric Company's H-Power plant, where they will be burned for energy.

Marine Debris!

Eh, Barb. We get plenny marine debris heah. Whachoo gonna do 'bout it? Look at dis one picha of da poor Hawaiian Monk Seal; da frenz at NOAA* took it.  Check out dere marine debris blog and da Marine Debris 101.

Poor braddah! He mebe starve if no can take 'em off!  Yeah, so Barb: whachoo doin' 'bout marine debris here on Midway?

[*Photo from marine debris blog; taken under MMPA/ESA permit #848-136 by NOAA Fisheries, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center]

What's your food? --brine flies?

Btw, Happy Mothers Day everybody! My ducklings let me sleep a little longer than usual this morning.
I'd like to see lots of photos and videos in our blog. This video shows some of my relatives eating flies. It might take a bit of time to load, but I think BBC Arkive's video "Laysan Ducks feeding on swarms of flies at Laysan Atoll" is really funny!