POIPU — When a moli, or Laysan albatross, took its first flight from the hotel grounds of The Point at Poipu Kauai on July 9, Hob Osterlund was thrilled.
“She was just over five months old,” said Osterlund, founder of the Kauai Albatross Network, and an award-winning author and photographer. “True to form. Others of the roughly 250 chicks on the island had also started fledging.”
However, something else set this particular chick apart.
“Never in recorded history has there been a successful moli nest in Poipu, or anywhere else on the Garden Island’s South Shore,” Osterlund said. “Local folks report seeing albatross in flight, and in courtship on the ground. But no one could remember a chick growing up there.”
Jaime Shigeta, the general manager at The Point at Poipu, is a primary key to the success that was marked by the fledging, Osterlund said.
“From the moment we were notified by the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) that an albatross had laid an egg, our team went into action,” Shigeta told Osterlund. “We worked very closely with DLNR to make sure the area was secured and monitored often. We have a deep sense of kuleana when it comes to the aina as we also have several iwi kupuna residing here. The team also focused on visitors — we posted literature in our public acres with high visibility to inform our guests.”
Osterlund said Shigeta is also very aware of the history of seabird predation along the South Shore coastline.
“We found that most cats in the area were domestic as we have successfully trapped them,” Shigeta said. “We educated about fines for violations. Fliers on property have created additional eyes for the area. When you express the importance of practicing Hawaiian values and showing respect for the culture and traditions, people are eager to participate and show their support as nature continues to thrive in unexpected ways.”
Kainani Kahaunaele, a Hawaiian language teacher at the University of Hawaii-Hilo, and a revered musician from Kauai, named the moli chick Hokupa‘a. That is Hawaiian for North Star, or Polaris, Osterlund said. Hokupaa was vital to traditional navigators for wayfinding.
Lynn Bowen, a volunteer with the Kauai Albatross Network, was another crucial key to Hokupaa’s fledging, Osterlund said. Bowen regularly visited, took photos, interacted with the public, and kept key people informed of the chick’s progress.
“Back in November, I noticed an albatross on the bluff,” Bowen told Osterlund. “I contacted Hob, and she told me about the unhatched egg last season. Hob said they hoped the pair would have a fertile egg this year. I was already a volunteer with Malama i Na Honu for the turtles, so watching this nest was right up my alley. When I found an active nest on Nov. 30, I was hooked.”
“I followed Hokupaa from hatch to fledge,” Bowen said. “Since the nest was close to a popular walking path, it was not always easy to keep the nest site confidential.”
Osterlund said because of her work with the honu, Bowen know what — and what not — to share with passersby. She knew that education and storytelling were huge.
“People will often get excited by wildlife if we talk with them in a kind way,” said Bowen who was cautious about what she posted on social media so as not to give away the exact location of the nest. “Most visitors end up respecting the wildlife and taking that respect home with them.”
Osterlund said moli likely nested on many islands of the Hawaiian Archipelago for thousands, if not millions, of years. But on the islands where humans arrived with predators such as cats, dogs, rats and pigs, nesting moli would have disappeared.
Kuaihelani, or Midway Atoll, located more than 1,000 miles northwest of Kauai, remains the moli mothership where, this year, there were 620,000 moli nests. Osterlund said it is the largest colony of any albatross species in the world.
She said in modern history, a few intrepid moli attempted nesting at Barking Sands and Kilauea Point. A 1980 article in the “Elepaio Journal of the Hawaii Audubon Society” described a total of 30 albatross eggs between 1974 to 1980. Almost all were destroyed by predators, abandoned or vandalized.
Three chicks did fledge in 1979, but only because of a temporary fence at Kilauea Point. Zero chicks fledged from Barking Sands.
“Since those days, predator protection on Kauai has unevenly improved, and the moli population has gradually. grown,” Osterlund said. “This nesting season, Kauai started out with 394 known nests, not including 93 on Lehua Islet. As of late June, those nearly 400 nests had produced 250 chicks.”
Source: The Garden Island