Wisdom & Akeakamai, Birds of a Feather

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Wisdom, a Laysan albatross on Midway Atoll, is considered the world’s oldest living wild bird at 68 years old. She recently laid an egg. Both her partner Akeakamai and Wisdom take turns tending their nest and hunting for food, and will continue to do so for the next 5 1/2 months as they raise their single chick.

As with other creatures living on or around the northwestern Hawaiian Islands, their habitats are threatened:

The birds are classified as a “near threatened” species, with climate change and sea living rise posing a major threat to their future. Laysan albatross nest on low-lying islands, which “will likely be submerged by rising sea levels as a result of climate change in this century,”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-new...180970966/

"I want great climate, we’re going to have that.” President Donald J. Trump, while viewing the massive wildfire devastation 11/17/18. (The J stands for Jenius)

[TomK]

I'd love to see Wisdom's air miles account. I bet she would put the most frequent air travelers to shame. Thank you for this, HOTPE.

[Guest]

Cool on the egg ..ZERoh to do with anything they can 'show' us. Past ut bedtime

[dan d]

I probably saw her in 1973. At that time there was 2500 military there and i was told appx 20k goonie birds. Near the naval facility there was a colony of black laysan albatross, they were bad ass, u didnt go near them. Imagine a 3 foot high rooster with a 4 inch very sharp hooked beak. A new guy got drunk and tried to make friends with one his first day there,and his arms the next day were shredded.

We had twice as many smaller nite birds,they were ground burrowers nesting. They would come in at nite , you wouldnt see them . A friend got knocked off his bicycle by one.

We had huge antennas with there support guy wires. A gonnie would come in and hit the wires and do a flat spin to the ground. They were usually fine on landing but shookin up.
I went to eastern island ,its within the midway island archipelago it had at least 3 times more birds than midway. By the old runway there were hundreds of frigate birds. Nesting in the high bushes. They have a 12 foot wingspan. Awesome birds with a bright red throat pouch and super black body. In the trade winds the could hover for hours.
It was a birders paradise. I spent most my of duty hours underwater. Most sailers just sat in the baracks and drank 20 cent beers. 3 % formaldehyde, 2 % alcohol. Funny. Remember Olympia beer? A six pack of smuggled coors was $50.
Aloha


HPP

[dan d]

Oh speaking of climate change, the highest part of the island was 34 feet above sea level. That was the control tower. That island will flood one day. Eastern island will go first.


HPP

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Thanks for the first hand account on the Laysan Albatross dan d. That must have been an interesting time in your life. Is Eastern Island the same as East Island? Wasn’t East Island the one which disappeared after Hurricane Waleka this past summer?

[dan d]

HOTPE thats eastern island. Eastern amd midway make up the 2 island group called midway islands origionaly. East island is about half way down the archipelago, nearer frigate shoals. Its a 20 minute ride in a landing craft between islands.(of midway) But nested in the same fringing reef. The reef is only about 1/4 mile from the beach on the north side of midway and goes out 5 miles to the fringing reef offshore. There was a reasearch station way out there, we used to fish for sharks out there. I saw over 200 in 1.5 years there.

Awesome diving. I have 13 hours of uw slides.lol


HPP

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Here's video of Wisdom on Midway from 60 Minutes Overtime.
The first part of the video discusses the Pacific garbage patch, the last minute or two shows Wisdom, her chick, and other albatross nesting.

Hatched before plastic became ubiquitous... "She's seen the entire arc of the problem grow," Levine said. "You know, the story of Wisdom is in a way the sort of story of plastic in the ocean itself."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-wisdom...0-minutes/

[dan d]

Wow i never saw that much plastic when i was there in 73` I will be going back in the next 2 years. Im building a 28 ft power cat. Want to help reseed the destroyed reef killed by warm water and hi acidification of the Pacific.

I will keep punawebbers in da loop. Working with UH and federal progams, we can help heal the dying reef in NWHI islands. They are allready doing great things at the great barrier reef,seeding the reef with baby coral,( coral polyps).
But big problem is we have about 70% indigenous , hawaii only coral,and the knowledgeable scientists want to make sure the corals dont get invaded by invasive species that could wipe out the local corals from the earth forever.

Several nations are taking a serious approach to helping there local coral reef. They are a big tourist attraction and destination, so big money will be lost with the loss of these reefs.

One would hope we would put a strong effort into the same both here and in Florida, where there is a dissease that is slowly going down the start of the Keyes, and is destroying the reefs,and will make its way quickly down to key west and spread south into the Bahamas,
Eventually.

Help if you can. Dont by stuff that pollutes or destroys the ocean ,
If you can. Eat fish ,they are a renewable resource.

Mahalo


HPP

[dan d]

Oh and we just found a 65 mi long Super Deep reef in the atlantic that Mr Trump just openend oil exploraton seismic testing ok for most of the Atlantic owned by us.

The nation will continue to drill oil at the expense of a slowly dim inished,dying world. LOL,but not laughing.


HPP