Hampshire Bird Club - monthly meetings

Populations of North Pacific albatross were decimated by feather-hunters in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and have recently suffered due to high rates of bycatch in longline fisheries. In addition to these human-induced stressors, albatross colonies can also be at risk from volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis. This past year, the earthquakes in Japan affected albatross colonies as far away as Hawaii, and demonstrated how natural disasters can have major effects on albatross populations. This program will update us on the status of North Pacific albatross populations, describe the influence of the 2011 Japanese earthquakes and associated tsunamis, and provide results from the first 4 years of chick translocations aimed at re-establishing a historic short-tailed albatross colony.

Biography

Paul Sievert is Assistant Unit Leader for the USGS, Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His first studies of Pacific albatrosses began 24 years ago when he examined the effect of plastic ingestion on Laysan and black-footed albatrosses in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Since then, he has been involved in studies of the movements of North Pacific albatross, modeled their population growth, and collaborated with the Yamashina Institute of Ornithology, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to re-establish an extirpated colony of short-tailed albatross.