Letters for Monday, May 31, 2010

• To save seabirds in fall, act now • Writer is callous

To save seabirds in fall, act now

The problems on Kaua‘i where artificial lights are interfering with and causing the fallout and subsequent demise of night-flying seabirds is not unique to Kaua‘i. Similar fallout is occurring or has occurred on many tropical islands that host similar petrel and shearwater species.  However, due to the intense development of Kaua‘i’s coastal plain over the past 30 years, the problem on Kaua‘i is worse than most. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the problem can be minimized by taking some light-reducing precautions that may also have the added benefit of shaving money off of your electric bill.

Whether you are an individual home owner or the manager of a large resort complex it is critical to eliminate or reduce exterior lights, especially from mid-September through mid-October. This eight-week window is when young seabirds fledge from their burrows in the mountains and head to the sea. However, breeding age and pre-breeding seabirds are actually flying back and forth from the mountains to the sea all spring and summer and they can also fallout around lights though in lower numbers than the peak fallout season in the fall.

Before humans, there were no lights along a seabird’s route to the open ocean and the stars and the moon were their guide. But now, bright exterior lights confuse them and instead of making it all the way to the sea they fallout around homes and building and around power lines and street lights where they become stressed, dehydrated, collide with buildings or get run over by cars. Yes, there has been a good effort through Save Our Shearwater (SOS) program to get some of these birds back out to sea. But SOS has not been enough and the Newell’s shearwater has declined some 80 percent in the last 20 years.

What can a home owner do? The answer is simple and could even save you money — eliminate outdoor lighting or put all exterior lights on motion-detectors. With a motion-detector, available at most hardware or lighting stores, the light is on when you need it but off the rest of time. We also recommend installing hoods or shields on all exterior lights or planting trees and shrubs that block the lights so that they shine down where we need it but not up where it can lure in a passing seabird. Also, keep shades drawn at night so that light does not spill into the night. Taking these inexpensive precautions will save the seabirds and maybe even save you some money off your electric bill.

For the big resorts the problem is just that much bigger, and we recommend that they commission a light audit of the entire resort campus. During a light audit the entire resort is walked and each light evaluated for how best to reduce its impact on passing seabirds. The goal of the light audit is to produce a final report that specifies actions to be taken to reduce/modify the artificial lighting. Previous work with seabirds in Hawai‘i, Galapagos and other locations has shown that a light audit can result in reduction of fallout and in many cases a cost savings to the resort from overall light reduction. The light audit will identify those lights that are contributing most to the fallout of seabirds and contains specific recommendations in such that it will be possible for facilities to take appropriate actions to minimize seabird-fallout. 

This summer is the best time to take these actions, as adult and sub-adult seabirds are falling out now and so that they are in place before the big fallout season coming this fall. Again, whether you live in a private residence or manage a big resort, please consider taking one or more of these actions as soon as possible:

— Eliminate unnecessary outside lights;

— Install downward shielding or guards on all outside lights;

— Install motion detector on-off triggers on garage and other outside lights;

— Reduce wattage and thereby the brightness of outdoor lighting;

— Plant trees and shrubs such that they provide a natural shielding for lights;

— If you need help, arrange for a light audit and follow the recommendations that it suggests.

Dr. Richard Podolsky, Rockport, Maine

Editor’s note: Podolsky is an ornithologist who ran the albatross decoy-attraction program at Kilauea Point and Crater Hill that helped to attract Laysan albatross back to Kaua‘i’s North Shore in the early 1980s. He can be reached at richardpodolsky.com or podolsky@att.net.

Writer is callous

The callousness of TGI writer Paul C. Curtis towards the visitors locked in at Maha‘ulepu is unwarranted. I think all would agree Grove Farm is very generous allowing the general public access onto their private land.

I certainly appreciate their consideration and applaud them. That is not the point of the locked-in visitors’ complaint.

It is the extortion fee charged by the towing company for unlocking the gate.  Are you serious… $650! I assume  from the tone of Mr. Curtis’s article he considers this fee to be in line with the service provided.

If I were charged $650 to have a gate unlocked I would be upset.

I believe 99.9 percent of all people would be upset, including Mr. Curtis pray tell he ever inadvertently finds himself or family members in a similar position.

Or maybe TGI is paying their reporters so much money that $650 is a mere drop in the bucket for their lifestyles.

Dale Gearhart, Kalaheo