{"id":589,"date":"2016-03-14T21:28:38","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T21:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/?p=589"},"modified":"2016-03-14T21:40:50","modified_gmt":"2016-03-14T21:40:50","slug":"midway-atoll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/2016\/03\/14\/midway-atoll\/","title":{"rendered":"Midway Atoll: Two weeks at the largest albatross colony in the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rachael Orben, Postdoctoral Scholar, Seabird Oceanography Lab & Geospatial Ecology of\u00a0Marine Megafauna Lab, Oregon State University<\/em><\/p>\n

In January I was extremely lucky to accompany my former PhD advisor, Scott Shaffer<\/a> to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0Papah\u0101naumoku\u0101kea Marine National Monument\u00a0<\/a>as part of my job as a postdoc working in Rob Suryan\u2019s Seabird Oceanography Lab<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>We were there with the dual purpose of GPS tracking Laysan and Black-footed albatrosses as part of Scott\u2019s long-term research and to collect fine-scale data on flight behavior to develop collision risk models for wind energy development (in other areas of the species ranges such as Oregon). Here are my impressions of this amazing island. <\/em><\/p>\n

So many albatrosses! Our approximately four hour flight from Honolulu to Midway landed at night and as we stood around on the dark tarmac greeting the human island residents I could just make out the ghostly glistening outlines of albatrosses by moonlight. But I had to wait until the following morning to really take stock of where I had suddenly landed: Midway Atoll, the largest albatross colony in the world. This was my first trip to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, but I have been to other albatross colonies before and Midway is most definitely different.<\/p>\n