Midway Atoll Albatross Survey Sectors

Publication Date

2018-06-18

Start Date

2011-12-16

End Date

2012-01-08

Berkowitz, P., Courtot, K.N., and Reynolds, M.H., 2018, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands: Impacts to Avifauna from the Tohoku Tsunami 2011: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F708647F.

Type: Related Primary Publication

Three albatross species breed at Midway Atoll: black-footed (Phoebastria nigripes), Laysan (P. immutabilis), and short-tailed (P. albatrus). The atoll is a globally important nesting site for black-footed and Laysan albatrosses with nearly 75% of the global breeding population of Laysan albatrosses and one-third of black-footed albatrosses nesting there in 2012. One short-tailed albatross pair has successfully bred on the atoll. As part of an effort to monitor albatross at this globally important site, USFWS personnel and volunteers conduct an annual, spatially-explicit, atoll-wide albatross census during the peak albatross incubation period (December-January). An atoll-wide, multi-species census occurred annually 2004-2017 (and may continue in future years); multi and single species albatross censuses occurred during some years before the 2003-2004 breeding season (hatch year 2004). USGS personnel assisted with the census during the 2011-2012 (hatch year 2012) census. Sector boundaries were established in order to divide the atoll into spatially-explicit survey areas that can be used consistently across survey years.

• Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center

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