Officials say 110,000 albatross chicks on Midway killed in tsunami
By 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.</p><p>Federal officials said least 2000 adults were also
killed.</p><p>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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