Working together to give endangered seabirds a new home

The short-tailed albatross, brought back from the edge of extinction just a few decades ago, is again under threat.

This time, volcanic activity threatens to destroy one of their two remaining habitats, both islands in Japan.

Japanese and U.S. researchers will kick off a five-year project this week to create a new colony for the endangered species, also known as Steller's albatross.

The birds are impressive. Called aho-dori in Japanese, the short-tailed albatross is a large, elegant seabird with a wingspan of up to 2.4 meters. It has a pure-white body, a golden streak on its head and a pink beak. Adult birds weigh as much as 4 to 5 kilograms.

Japan hosts the world's only two known breeding grounds for the seabird--Torishima island, about 580 kilometers south of Tokyo, and the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

The project calls for researchers to relocate chicks from Torishima to Mukojima island, part of the Ogasawara island chain some 350 km away.

A third nesting site is deemed necessary because a volcanic eruption on Torishima, part of the Izu island chain, could destroy the birds' habitat. The last major eruption there was in August 2002.

The project will be undertaken by the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology, based in Abiko, Chiba Prefecture, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).

Greg Balogh, who heads the Endangered Species Branch at the USFWS's Anchorage field office, expressed delight that matters are moving ahead earlier than he had expected as a result of cooperation between the two countries.

The translocation project, which has the backing of the Environment Ministry in Tokyo, will be mostly funded by the U.S. government. Japanese researchers will relocate albatross chicks each year for the next five years.

Torishima is home to 2,100 short-tailed albatrosses. Between 300 and 400 birds nest on the Senkaku Islands. Mukojima was also their habitat until around the 1930s.

While once common, the birds were brought almost to extinction, mainly by the trade in feathers in the late 19th century. Feather hunters clubbed millions of birds to death within the space of a few decades. In 1949, the species was officially deemed "extinct."

Short-tailed albatrosses build colonies on the grassy rugged terraces of Torishima and the Senkaku Islands around November.

After raising their chicks, the seabirds fly off to areas around the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska or near the Aleutian Islands from June to September.

On Friday, a helicopter will airlift the first batch of 10 chicks, all about 40 days old, to uninhabited Mukojima.

Researchers from the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology will feed and raise the fledglings until the birds set out on their own around May.

The birds are expected to return to the island for breeding in seven years or so after they reach sexual maturity.

Young birds spend the entire year at sea.

"We will never give up," said Satoshi Yamagishi, director-general of the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology. "We plan to keep this project going."

The Asahi Shimbun is supporting the project financially and through coverage.

The short-tailed albatross is classified as an endangered species on the Red List of Threatened Species, published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

In Japan, the bird is designated as one of its special natural treasures. It is also protected under the law for the conservation of endangered species of wild fauna and flora.

In the United States, the bird was listed as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act in August 2000.

In summer 2001, the U.S. government set up a task force to revive the bird population and has since been working with the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology.

Since the late 1990s, a large number of short-tailed albatrosses have died at sea, where they spend the summer months, after getting hooked and drowning on commercial long-line fishing gear.

In 1999, the USFWS began supplying streamer line kits that ward off the seabirds to fishing vessels. The service was offered at no charge.(IHT/Asahi: February 11,2008)