Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 5, 1 May 2011 — Agencies assess tsunami damage in Papahānaumokuākea [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Agencies assess tsunami damage in Papahānaumokuākea

More than 100,000 tropical seabirds were killed at Midway Atoll alone

ByTreenaShapiro Birds nesting in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument took a heavy hit when tsunami waves washed over the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands last month. A multiagency team estimates 110,000 Laysan and black-footed albatross were killed in surges generated by the earthquake off the coast of lapan. Starting in the late hours of March 10, waves as tall as 5 feet inundated many of the monument's islands and low-lying atolls, sweeping away thousands of nests, along with the chicks and eggs they contained. ' 'What happened in the N orthwes tem Hawaiian Islands is obviously minor compared to the tragedy that happened in lapan, the tragedy that is still going on there," says David Swatland, Nahonal Oeeanie and Atmospheric

Administration Deputy Superintendent for Papahānaumokuākea. "While we are extremely fortunate that no lives were lost in Hawai'i as a result of the tsunami, the Northwestem Hawaiian Islands did suffer damage to facilities, land features and more importantly, a significant loss of wildlife." Swatland and representatives from other agencies provided media an iniīial overview at Barbers Point on March 28, following aerial and ground surveys at the monument. The impact of the tsunami throughout Papahānaumokuākea will be more fully assessed as evacuated field workers begin retuming to their camps this month. Over the summer, researchers will also examine whether coral reefs and other underwater habitats sustained damage. Ray Bom, Papahānaumokuākea acting Deputy Superintendent for Fish and Wildlife, estimates repairs to mamnade structures, including docks

and a seawall protecting Midway's runway, may cost "tens of millions" of dollars. The Coast Guard conducted a twoday flyover that allowed researchers to perfonn an aerial assessment of the monument. Representatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Hawai'i Department of Land and Natural Resources, and NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service and Office of National Marine Sanctuaries also surveyed naturalresource damage on the ground at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, whieh includes Sand and Eastern islands. Papahānaumokuākea, home to nearly 7,000 marine and land species, is the world's largest tropical seabird rookery. More than 14 million birds - includingmorethan 1 inillionalbatross - live at the monument. Hundreds of birds, endangered Hawaiian monk seals and green sea turtles seen after the tsunami indicate that mueh of the

terrestrial wildlife survived. The state of their habitats is uncertain, however, and researchers are also concemed wildlife may have been exposed to toxic chemicals when the tsunami washed over a landfill on Kure Atoll that contains hazardous waste. NOAA field eamp worker Iason Alan Iones and four others were on Kure during the tsunami. All five climbed atop their eamp house, donned life jackets and waited in total darkness, "not knowing if there was a wall of water heading up to us," he describes. They could hear a loud rumbling and cracking branches as the tsunami approached, but the waves stopped 250 feet short of the eamp house. However, the surges swamped Iones' tent and left behind 5 inches of mud and destroyed data. Before Kure was evacuated, Iones was able to account for just about all the monk seals he monitors, including two pups. Kure field eamp supervisor Cynthia Vanderlip notes that it would have been a different story if the tsunami had occurred later in the pupping season. While one pup was found with its mother, the other pair had been separated. Vanderlip discovered the second pup crying as its mother

dozed about 150 yards away. "I waited for a while then carried her to her mommy," she says. "The mom growled at me for that. She wasn't very grateful." The pair was soon nuzzling, Vanderlip observed. Kure's dune stmcture and relatively healthy native vegetation offered some protection from the tsunami. The atoll lost some 1,100 albatross chicks, but only three adults, compared to 100 adults on Midway. The loss of chicks throughout Papahānaumokuākea is significant, but less devastating than if an entire cohort of breeding age adults had been wiped out, Vanderlip explains. Papahānaumokuākea falls under the protection of three co-trustees - the Department of Commerce, the Department of the Interior and the State of Hawai'i - joined by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. In 2010, it was inscribed as the first mixed natural and cultural UNESCO World Heritage Site in the United States. ■ Treena Shapiro, a freelance writer, is a former reporter for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin anel Honolulu Advertiser.

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The tsunami swept across Midway Atoll's Eastern lsland spreading plastic debris and killing thousands of birds. - Photos: Courtesy of NOM/Oan Dennison

Workers are cleaning up bird carcasses at Midway Atoll. While the loss of birds is significant, millions of tropical seabirds eonhnue to use the NWHI for nesting and breeding.