KIPU — The Save Our Shearwaters program has been collecting, cleaning, measuring, analyzing, providing care and rescuing seabirds for 30 years, so on Wednesday, the group took a much-deserved break.
“Not having birds here is good because it means they’re all healthy and flying,” program coordinator Angie Merritt said at the 30th anniversary get-together celebrating the rescue and saving of shearwaters and other seabirds held Wednesday afternoon at the rescue facilities located at the Kaua‘i Humane Society.
Kaua‘i High School science students Christina Pearson and Isabella Arcio shyly laid back in the crowd that included members of the Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative board — which provides support for the program — as well as other community agency representatives, Kaua‘i County Councilwoman Lani Kawahara and other guests.
“This is the first time I’ve been to an event like this so I don’t really know what to expect,” Pearson said. “We support saving shearwaters so this is a good way to keep up on what is going on with efforts to save the birds.”
Both students said they’ve seen pictures of the shearwaters, but have never had a close-up view of a bird, and the lack of live shearwaters was a disappointment.
The two were at the event at the invitation of their teacher, Monique Chow, who also doubles as the lead technician at the seabird rescue facility.
“I just wanted to expose the students to seabirds and see what kind of career opportunities it presents,” Chow said. “The students get to come and learn since they are in the human anatomy and physiology class.”
Guests were given a tour of the rescue facility by the various SOS staff members that include Merritt, Chow, Solny Adalsteinsson and Jessica Majernik.
“We usually have two technicians on the road picking up birds, and one person back at the lab,” Merritt said.
When a bird is brought in, it is cleaned, measured and analyzed with data being recorded, Merritt said. If it is healthy, it is released from one of four special sites on the island. If it needs care, it remains at the facility until it is healthy enough to be released.
“There were between 350-400 birds picked up, last year,” Merritt said. “People help a lot because they picked up the birds from along roadsides, in parking lots and other places where birds drop.”
Once birds are rescued, people can bring them to any one of the fire stations on the island, or to the rescue facility at the Kaua‘i Humane Society.
Other locations include the Kilauea Medical Group, Hanalei Liquor Store and the Princeville Sheraton Hotel on the North Shore, the Kaua‘i Marriott Resort and Beach Club, the Lihu‘e Airport, the Matson Navigation Company at Nawiliwili Harbor in the Central area, the Port Allen Chevron plant and PMRF on the Westside, the Grand Hyatt Kaua‘i Resort and Spa and the Sheraton Kaua‘i on the South Shore.
Joining the SOS group, Emily Haber and Jessi Hallman of the Kaua‘i Endangered Seabird Recovery Project were also on hand at the celebration.
Haber, the group’s coordinator, said the KESRP has been on the island for four years and works closely with SOS, providing the research arm for the group.
“Education is an ongoing thing,” said Dr. Becky Rhoades, director of the Kaua‘i Humane Society. “We have some excellent material on the shearwaters, and especially, an activity book that is distributed by Carol Everett, the humane society’s education coordinator. Or, they can stop by the office and get one for themselves.”
For more information on what people can do to continue to help the shearwaters and other seabirds, visit the Kaua‘i Humane Society’s Web site at www.kauaihumane.org/shearwaters.asp.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com.
