LIHUE — Green bulbs, shielded lights and a “common-sense,” turn-them-off approach. These are some of the tools Pacific Missile Range Facility is using in its continued effort to protect Kauai’s native and threatened seabirds. The 2013 fledging season for Newell’s
LIHUE — Green bulbs, shielded lights and a “common-sense,” turn-them-off approach.
These are some of the tools Pacific Missile Range Facility is using in its continued effort to protect Kauai’s native and threatened seabirds.
The 2013 fledging season for Newell’s shearwater and Hawaiian Petrels ended last month with zero injuries or casualties at the base.
“It’s been a six-year project,” said John Burger, PMRF Range Complex Sustainment Coordinator. “I must tell you, these things don’t happen overnight.”
Instead, the achievement is the result of a lot of hard work by a large group of people at the base, as well as an attitude and general respect for the environment, according to Burger.
“We have not only made physical changes over the six years, but we’ve grown a culture that is more and more aware,” he said.
This season marked the first in over 10 years that PMRF did not record a single downed bird.
“We’re not finding them at all,” Burger said. “You can’t get better than zero.”
Each year, from Sept. 15 to Dec. 15, Kauai seabirds fledge from their mountain nests, often flying several miles to reach the ocean.
“Because these birds leave the nest — or fledge — for the first time at night, they have no practice flights,” Burger said in a release Wednesday. “It’s all or nothing … Their navigation systems utilize moon and starlight, and the presence of unshielded and intense coastal lighting along their flyways results in confusion and disorientation.”
Unfortunately, the birds have a well-known — and sometimes fatal — attraction to artificial lights. Much like a moth, the young birds circle the light source until they become exhausted or strike an object. Once on the ground, they become targets for predators.
In 2011, Burger said PMRF recorded 12 fallout incidents. The year after, that number was reduced to just three.
While none of last year’s incidents resulted in fatalities, all were attributed to high-wattage light sources, which were immediately switched, according to PMRF.
Burger attributes this season’s 100 percent success rate to “physical changes, combined with an educational outreach program to PMRF’s ohana and guests on Barking Sands.”
Those physical changes include the implementation of a “Dark Sky” program, which improved lighting conditions so the birds would be less distracted. Conventional lamps were converted to LEDs, and full-cutoff fixtures prevent the light source from being seen by the birds from above.
Another technology being utilized at the base are “green lights,” a spectrum first tested 2010, which seems to also work in the birds’ favor, according to Burger.
And finally, PMRF has adopted what Burger described as a “common sense” protocol.
“If you don’t need a light, turn it off,” he said.
Although proud of this year’s numbers — or lack thereof — Burger hasn’t gotten ahead of himself.
“It doesn’t mean success next year,” he said.
He continues to tell the PMRF staff, “Let’s not get our heads in the sky here.”
The information and techniques employed at PMRF have been presented to conservation groups on Kauai, a conference on Oahu, and formally to the Kauai County Council to help spread awareness of PMRF’s effective conservation and resource management — both electrical and biological, according to the release.
Kauai is home to the largest population of ground-nesting seabirds in the main Hawaiian Islands. Both the Newell’s and Hawaiian Petrel are listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.
