Supported by a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Anderson has been studying the flight patterns of Laysan and black-footed albatrosses nesting at Kilauea Point and Tern Island National Wildlife Refuges. The seabirds nest in these refuges and travel out into the ocean to find food for their chicks. The study seeks to find ways to reduce worldwide albatross declines of up to 10 per cent a year and answer evolutionary questions raised by the seabird's long sojourns at sea.

Dr. Anderson has tracked birds from both locations through the use of small radio transmitters taped between their wings. Orbiting Argos System satellites pick up the signals and relay them to a processing station in France before the coordinates are sent by e-mail to Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. Here Dr. Anderson and Patty Fernandez, a graduate student in biology, distribute the information by e-mail to school classes participating in The Albatross Project by tracking "their " albatross. Thousands of school children in Hawaii and across the world follow the birds, along with Anderson and his research team, through the project's e-mail bulletin board and website.

The researchers found that the albatross make short trips for food until their chicks are about a month old, when they begin making long trips that take them away from the islands for weeks at a time. A Laysan albatross tracked in the project flew more than 24,843 miles in flights across the North Pacific to find food for its chick in just 90 days, flights equivalent to circling the globe. Other birds made repeated trips from Tern Is. out as far north as the Aleutian Islands and black-footed albatrosses made long repeated trips from Tern Is. to San Francisco Bay and back. These observations shed light on how the availability of food affects the seabirds' reproduction and how their populations can be protected from declines attributed to longline fishing fleets plying Pacific waters for tuna and other fish.

January 12, 2000
Dr. David A. Burney, Fordam University
Reading the Landscape of Kaua'i

Internationally recognized paleo-ecologist David Burney has explored Kaua'i's cracks and crevices to unlock the secrets of our islands natural history for nearly a decade. His research reveals a compelling picture of the plant and animal communities that developed, flourished, and often disappeared from Kauai's shores through clues shifted from archeological excavations and the analysis of ancient plant pollen samples. Dr. Burney's research is especially important in documenting the dramatic effects of human settlement to the island's flora and fauna.

Kauai's resident geologist, Chuck Blay, revealed the awesome volcanic forces that have shaped the Garden Island. The virtual tour of the island explored the isolation and uniqueness of Kauai and Niihau. At slightly greater than 5 million years, they are the oldest of Hawaii's eight main high volcanic mountain/islands, which extend for over 350 miles across the middle of the North Pacific Ocean and represent some of the earth's most isolated islands. Blay began with an overview of the characteristics of the Hawaiian Archipelago, part of one of the planet's longest, but mostly submerged, mountain chains, and reviewed current theories for its geologic origin in the middle of the Earth's largest ocean basin. The severely isolated volcanic mountain/island chain has been the site of the evolution of unique fauna and flora elements in its nearshore marine and terrestrial environments. Hawaii's islands also were among the last places on earth discovered and occupied by humans.

Focusing in on Kauai, Dr. Blay discussed the character and origins of some of our island's most spectacular feature, such as Waimea Canyon, Na Pali coast, Alakai Swamp, Lihue Depression, and Waialeale Pali. He reviewed aspects of his research on the character and origin of the island's beautiful skeletal sand beaches and prominent coral/algal reefs, the history of Kauai's ocean drownings over the past 30 years and the record of glacial/interglacial sea-levels preserved in the limestone ledges of Mahaulepu. The final segment of the presentation dealt with his observations on the geological aspects of the late-stage explosive volcano and present-day coastline in the vicinity of Kilauea's Crater Hill.

Dr. Blay and Robert Siemers co-authored the book: Kauai's Geological History: A Simplified Guide, which is available from the KPNHA gift shop