Officials say 110,000 albatross chicks on Midway killed in tsunami

By Honolulu Star-Advertiser staff
POSTED: 02:24 p.m. HST, Mar 18, 2011

"Federal officials are now estimating that more than 110,000 Laysan and
Black-footed Albatross chicks, about 22 percent of this year's albatross
production, at Midway Atoll National Refuge in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine
National Monument because of last week's earthquake in Japan. Immediately
following the March 11 quake and tsunami, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
estimated "tens of thousands" of albatross chicks have been lost along with
1,000 adult birds resulting from the tsunami that washed over Midway's
three low-lying islands March 10-11. Federal officials said at least 2,000
adults were also killed. Biologists also initially estimated that thousands
of Bonin Petrels were lost, but they have since been unable to confirm a
number due to the species' behavior of nesting underground. Their burrows are
not as extensively mapped as the albatross nests."

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P.S. Today's brain teaser: Can you correctly pronounce Papahanaumokuakea
in less than two seconds?

Richard Rowlett
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA