Papahanaumokuakea Shipwrecks and Two Brothers
Three whaling ships have been reported shipwrecked at French Frigate Shoals: the Daniel Wood in 1867, the South Seaman in 1859, and the Two Brothers in 1822. Many are familiar with the fate of the Nantucket whaleship Essex, cited as the inspiration for Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. After the tragedy of the Essex, Captain George Pollard and other survivors endured a 95-day journey in small boats that resulted in sickness, starvation, and cannibalism.
Pollard was later given command of the whaleship Two Brothers, which headed towards newly discovered whaling grounds in the Pacific. Sailing in consort with the whaleship Martha, they encountered stormy weather in the vicinity of French Frigate Shoals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, and stuck the reef in 15 feet of water. Survivors describe a wrecking event so violent and confusing that the sailors barely had the time to launch small boats and paddle away before the vessel became a complete loss on the reef. The crew found the Martha anchored in the lee of a fifty foot tall rock, now called La Perouse Pinnacle. The entire crew of Two Brothers was rescued and they headed back to Oahu.
In 2008, a team of NOAA maritime archaeologists made an exciting discovery of a large anchor in approximately 15 feet of water near French Frigate Shoals. Then they discovered try pots, another large anchor, hundreds of bricks, hawsepipes, remains of standing rigging, blubber hooks, grinding wheel, kedge anchor, and cast iron pots. In 2010 the team uncovered an incredible collection of whaling tools on the sea floor, including whaling harpoon tips, whaling lances, ceramics, glass, and a sounding lead that all date to the 1820s. The evidence suggested that they were looking at the Two Brothers, the only American whaler lost at French Frigate Shoals in the 1820s.
The Two Brothers still remains on the seafloor at French Frigate Shoals within Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. This and other American whaling ships lost in Papahānaumokuākea are the material remains of a time when America possessed over 700 whaling vessels and over one fifth of the United States whaling fleet may have been composed of Pacific Islanders. The artifacts will become part of the Monument’s maritime heritage exhibit at the Mokupāpapa Discovery Center in Hilo.
Hawaiian Reef Fish and Masked Angelfish
Masked Angelfish (Genicanthus personatus) are endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. This species is abundant and in shallow waters of Papahanaumokuakea, but extremely rare in the main Hawaiian Islands, where it is usually encountered in deep waters of 250 feet or more. This group of angelfish often lives off the bottom, where it feeds primarily on zooplankton and grows up to ten inches long.
Like other angelfishes, it begins its mature life as a female, then eventually changes sex to become a male. Female Masked Angelfish are white, with a black patch on the forehead and over the eye region and above the eyes, and a black bar on the tail. Males are pearly white, rimmed with orange on the tail and around the eyes, with a black bar on the tail.
Papahanaumokuakea and Tsunami 2011
Following a massive earthquake in Japan, a tsunami washed over the three low-lying islands of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge on March 10-11, 2011 affecting the lives of Hawaiian seabirds. Surveys reveal that more than 110,000 Laysan and Black-footed Albatross chicks (about 22 percent of this year’s albatross production) were lost as a result of the tsunami and two severe winter storms preceding it.
Midway Atoll is comprised of three islands – Sand, Eastern, and Spit Islands – 1117, 366, and 15 acres, respectively. Following the earthquake, the three islands were washed by four successive waves, the tallest of which was approximately 4.9 feet. The tsunami overwashed the fringing reef and Spit Island completely, and covered approximately 60% of Eastern Island and 20% of Sand Island.
Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge provides significant habitat for over 3 million seabirds of 21 species. Fortunately, only 4 species were nesting at the time of the tsunami – Bonin petrels, a species that nests in burrows, the endangered Short-tailed Albatross (1 pair), Laysan Albatross (482,909 pairs), and Black-footed Albatross (28,581 pairs).
Wildlife losses at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge also include at least 2000 adult birds. Wisdom, a 60-year-old albatross that recently hatched her 35th chick survived the tsunami partly due to the elevation of her nest. Due to the Bonin petrels’ behavior of nesting underground it is hard for biologists to confirm the number of casualties. The Refuge is also important habitat for the endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal, the threatened Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle, and a translocated population of the endangered Laysan Duck. Three Green Sea Turtles were found washed onto the interior of Eastern Island and were returned alive to the sea. Biologists are confident that, absent any other stressors, the Hawaiian wildlife population can rebound from this event. Photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Hawaiian Wildlife and Spinner Dolphins 3
Besieged on all sides, these spinner dolphins may one day find themselves without any haven at all on the island of Moorea. But this afternoon, as the sun begins to drop, the dolphins slowly awaken from rest. From the surface, the first sign is an increase of aerial displays.
Scientists studying spinner dolphins have catalogued seven types of aerial behaviors. Simplest of all are the nose outs . . .as the beak is thrust from the surface. . . this is often one of the first signs of a school coming out of the rest period. The spinners use tail slaps as acoustic signals– giving cues about danger. . . or a signal to dive. They can also be performed upside-down. Head slaps . . . side slaps. . . and back slaps are most frequently seen as the school begins to pick up speed. . . Spinner dolphins also perform a series of leaps, including arcuate leaps. . .salmon leaps. . .and tail-over-head leaps. . .
Last — and most spectacular — are the spins themselves. Many animals spin repeatedly. . . with each spin tending to get smaller and Smaller . . finally finishing up with an emphatic side slap.
The power of the spin comes from the tremendous acceleration under the water. . . And the torque of the tail as the dolphin breaks the surface. The aftermath of the spin — the sound of the slap. . . the splash on the surface . . . and the dense bubble cloud underwater, which even distant dolphins can pick up through their echolocation. . . may be the real purpose of the spin.
Spinner dolphins maximize the effect of this splash by twisting around to land in a belly-flop, or back-flop. Spins are most frequently performed while the school is spread out across the water. A spinning dolphin may be signaling to the others: “here I am. . . . here is where I am going. . . ” The effect of many dolphins spinning and leaping at once, defines what scientists call the envelope of the school — that is, its size, direction, and speed of travel.
This afternoon in moorea, as the spinners awaken from their afternoon rest, some members begin to spin, urging the school to move out of the lagoon. . . . But other members are reluctant to leave just yet, and slowly nudge the school back into the bay, and into resting behavior. For the next hour or more, the spinners perform this zig-zag pattern. . . going airborne, moving out. . . . then quieting down, and drifting back toward shore…
Because there is no hierarchy in spinner society, movement and change are decided by group consensus. Only when all the members of the school are ready to make the move into the open sea will the charge begin. . . . Suddenly, the vocalizations of the school burst forth. . . . The sound is a cacophony of squawks, blats, barks, whistles, and clicks — as all the members of the school literally shout at once.
For the dolphins, this uniquely noisy display now signals that they are indeed ready to move into the open sea. But to clear the lagoon, they must exit through one of the passes. The spinners will not travel through the surf itself, as the crashing waves create a barrier of bubbles which their sonar cannot penetrate.
Dr. Michael Poole recalls the day when the weather changed suddenly, the waves building so high that they closed out the dolphins’ only exit.
Poole: The waves were so much larger even than they are today, that the entire pass was closing out. We stayed inshore and on my boat — we had two teams working simultaneously — watching these dolphins the entire day. At sunset, around 6:00 or 6:15, the animals were still here.
Never before had the dolphins stayed inside the lagoon until sunset . . . but with several newborn calves and enormous waves blocking their route, the school could not leave. . . The dolphins were hungry — especially the females with young. As night fell, the waves grew even larger.
Finally, nearly 30 hours after entering the lagoon, the dolphins’ doorway opened once again.
Poole: As the swell dropped back down they then went out into the open ocean and left. I believe that they’d been stuck here through that night and through that day because they’d been unable to go out with their small calves. But this afternoon, the pass is wide open, and the dolphins swim through easily on their way out to the open sea.
Once outside the reef, conditions change immediately. Ocean swells build all around. The school picks up speed. . . Spreading out across the water. . . signaling to each other through aerial displays. . . As the spinners turn the northwest corner of moorea, their keen hearing picks up powerfully resonant sounds. . . ..
The songs of humpbacks are punctuated by their own brand of aerial behavior. . . Two 50-ton males slash their tails and breach. . . They are competing for a female, who tries to elude them.
A pod of pilot whales join the pursuit. As does a school of rizzo’s dolphins — all seemingly drawn by curiosity to the mating of the giants. Dolphins and pilot whales dive across the bows of the great whales. . . surfing them as they would a ship. The humpbacks seem oblivious to the smaller cetaceans. . . absorbed, as they are, in their own graceful and powerful ritual. . . as one male struggles to shoulder aside the other, in pursuit of the female.
But this spectacle — however compelling — does not divert the spinner dolphins from their agenda, as they head out to sea. Spinners rarely deviate from their daily schedule, no matter what goes on around them. Interactions between different species of whales and dolphins are rarely observed in the wild, let alone understood. But one of the most intriguing cases of a relationship between species can be found 300 miles north of moorea, on a coral atoll known as rangiroa.
Millions of years ago, rangiroa was also a massive island. Today its volcanoes are long extinct, eroded and subsided entirely back into the sea. Only two passes remain into rangiroa’s lagoon. . . and with each change of the tides, huge flows of water rip through the passes. . . sweeping nutrients in and out, a fluid pendulum of the sea. These passes have become a gathering place for an astonishing variety of marine life. . . . Including hundreds — perhaps thousands — of sharks. . .
Because of the sharks, and the rip tides, the spinner dolphins of rangiroa never enter this lagoon. . . Instead, resting offshore each afternoon. But a school of bottlenose dolphins — much larger and stronger than the spinners — have chosen to live in these passes year-round. And twice a day, when the tides change, the 10-foot high standing waves of the rip tide become the bottlenose dolphin’s playground. . . ..
For human swimmers, the whirlpools and undertows created by this rip tide would prove fatal… Dragging them hundreds of feet deep and sweeping them far out to sea. But for the dolphins, these challenging conditions are nothing short of exhilarating.
Year after year, the bottlenose of rangiroa have enjoyed this twice-daily recreation, passing the surfing art on from one generation to the next. But several years ago, observers here noticed something new. . . . a dolphin acting quite differently in the waves than the others. . . . .a much smaller dolphin. . . spinning. At that time, for reasons we can only guess, this pod of bottlenose dolphins adopted an infant spinner dolphin.
With their short rounded beaks, the bottlenose are twice the length and ten times the weight of the spinner. Yet despite these differences, the young spinner has lived among these bottlenose. . . doing everything just as the larger dolphins do. . . including entering the standing waves twice a day. But when the bottlenose leap, the spinner spins. . . .
In addition to surfing the pass, these dolphins have another kind of thrill to look forward to…
Hawaiian Birds and Black-footed Albatross Conservation
Black-footed Albatross are recognized as a conservation concern and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service continues to request it be listed as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. In 1992, the worldwide Black-footed Albatross (Phoebastria nigripes) population was estimated at 200,000 individuals, then in 2000, estimates were at 109,000 mature individuals indicating a downward trend. Banded individuals have been known to live for 40 years, but with only one egg laid per year, conservation is a long process.
Populations have been threatened from feather hunters at the turn of the century, from the introduction of rabbits on Laysan Island, and from aircraft collisions and lead-based paint on Midway. Introduced Pacific rats on Kure Atoll preyed on eggs and young chicks. At breeding colonies, measures have been taken to restore native habitat, eradicate introduced plant and mammal species, and remove contaminant threats.
Interactions with fisheries have been considered a primary source of mortality. Drift nets killed an estimated 3,000 to 4,500 birds in 1990. Following closure of Pacific high-seas driftnet fisheries in 1992, pelagic longline vessels became responsible for most fishery deaths of Black-footed Albatrosses and were estimated to remove up to 5,000 to 14,000 annually. The designation of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in 2006 established the world’s largest protected marine reserve where longline fishing is prohibited. However, Black-foots spend a relatively small amount of time foraging in Hawaiian waters. At the end of the breeding season, adults migrate into the northeastern Pacific Ocean, temporarily vacating breeding colonies and following a pelagic lifestyle.
Hawaiian Birds and Black-footed Albatross Mating Dance
The mating dance of the Black-footed Albatross (Phoebastria nigripes) is an important part of the formation of the pair bond, and consists of a number of ritualized display postures performed in various sequences:
Male – Eh Call, Whine, Inhalation, Eh Call, Inhalation, Whinny, Inhalation
Female – Head-up Clacker
Male – Whine, Inhalation
Female – Head-up Clacker.
Bowing – The head, neck, and foreparts are bobbed up and down.
Gawky Look – The head is held forward while watching partner performing.
Billing – The bird gently touches the partner’s bill with its bill (following the Gawky Look).
Mouthing – Mutual preening performed while sitting.
Yapping – The bill is pointed down and the Double Call is given repeatedly.
Head Shake and Whine – The head rapidly swings from side to side with beak open and the Whine is uttered.
Sky Call – While performing the Sky Call the bird rises on the tips of its toes, stretching the neck and pointing the bill upward.
Head Up and Whine – Similar to the Sky Call posture but the bird gives a whine.
Scapular Action – The tip of the bill is placed near the bend of the wing and the bill lightly clappered.
Head Up and Clap – Assumes the Sky Call posture but snapping the bill instead of Mooing (following Scapular Action).
