Wedge-tailed Shearwaters are doing well on Maui

A Wedge-tailed Shearwater chick at at Kama'ole III

The Wedge-tailed Shearwater or 'ua'u kani Ardenna pacifica colony at Kama'ole Beach Park III on the Hawaiian island of Maui has grown from 387 burrows in 2019 to 1069 burrows this season, an increase of 176%.  This increase has followed a predator control programme including against feral cats.  Habitat restoration efforts by the Maui Nui Seabird Recovery Project (MNSRP) have been directed at removing non-native vegetation that can shelter such predators (click here).

“The Maui Nui Seabird Recovery Project (MNSRP) began in March of 2006 when project staff documented the presence of a significant breeding colony of Endangered Hawaiian Petrels (HAPE) [Pterodroma sandwichensis] in the upper reaches of the Lāna‘i watershed. This colony is the second largest known breeding colony of HAPE in Hawaii.  Project staff began work to protect the seabirds by removing predators and habitat altering plants that were taking over the breeding colony.  On Maui and Moloka’i MNSRP continues to search for seabird colonies, provide protections where funding and staffing permit and to provide public education about the importance of seabirds in our natural environment.  The project collaborates with researchers, managers and regulators to focus efforts as well as possible to benefit our seabirds.”

Maui Nui Seabirds is a project of the Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit of the University of Hawaii at Manoa in association with the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resourcess, Division of Forestry and Wildlife and the NGO Pacific Rim Conservation.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 December 2021