Learned et al. (2025)

Author Information

Jenni Learned and Jay Penniman: Maui Nui Seabird Recovery Project

The Maui Nui Seabird Recovery Project (MNSRP) maintained ongoing recovery, monitoring, and management programs for listed and non-listed seabird species on Maui in 2024, and assisted in seabird monitoring and protection programs on Molokai.

1. Annual ornithological radar surveys for the endemic and endangered ʻaʻo (Newell’s Shearwater, Puffinus newelli) and ʻuaʻu (Hawaiian petrel, Pterodroma sandwichensis) continued with surveys at fifteen sites around Maui throughout the month of June. Trends are consistent among all modern survey years (2021–2024) with stable or increasing rates at sites surrounding the large breeding population of ʻuaʻu on Haleakalā in east Maui.
2. Management of ʻuaʻu breeding habitat in the upper Nakula Natural Area Reserve and Kahikinui Forest reserve, including predator removal and reproductive success monitoring, continues to support greater management efforts to protect the Haleakalā ʻuaʻu population, in partnership with agencies including Haleakalā National Park, Hawaiʻi State Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW), and Invenergy’s Auwahi Wind. MNSRP monitored 115 ʻuaʻu burrows in 2024 with a resulting reproductive success rate of 64%. The trapping program within the sites is expanding and adapting to predator presence, with the addition of new trap types including the automatically resetting NZ Autotraps AT220s. 
3. MNSRP continues to maintain the predator exclosures at the Makamaka’ole seabird protection site in west Maui, and monitor for the attendance of breeding seabirds. Social attraction and nest boxes are established for ʻuaʻu, ʻaʻo, and ʻakēʻakē (Band-rumped Storm-petrel, Hydrobates castro). In 2024, for the first time, ʻuaʻu were documented visiting nest boxes during the breeding season. ʻAʻo presence was consistent compared to previous years, however, no chicks hatched. ʻAkēʻakē has not established to date.
4. ʻUaʻu kani (Wedge-tailed Shearwater, Ardenna pacifica) have several coastal breeding sites established throughout Maui Nui and offshore islets. MNSRP maintains a long-term ʻuaʻu kani reproductive success study and banding program, and performs habitat management and predator removal at several locations. ʻUaʻu kani respond well to management, and population growth continues annually. In addition, the location of the sites allows for educational and community focused events throughout the year, providing opportunity to involve the public in seabird conservation. Almost 1,300 chicks were banded in 2024 at seven separate events on Maui and Molokai, involving over one hundred partners and volunteers representing twenty-four separate groups and conservation organizations.
5. As agents of Hawaiʻi State Division of Forestry and Wildlife, MNSRP maintains a downed seabird hotline and responds to calls of downed or injured seabirds. Seabirds are recovered by trained staff, assessed, banded, and released or sent to the Hawaiʻi Wildlife Center for rehabilitation. MNSRP recovered 92 ʻuaʻu kani and 20 ʻuaʻu during the fledgling fallout season in 2024.
6. American Bird Conservancy supported MNSRP with assisting the Molokai Land Trust with trapping and seabird monitoring programs within the seabird protection site at Anapuka Dunes/Mokio Preserve, following the recent completion of a predator exclusion fence. ʻUaʻu kani presence is growing at the site, with 29 chicks banded in 2024. 

In addition to ongoing programs, MNSRP initiated a new project funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to survey for ʻakēʻakē presence across Maui using passive acoustic monitoring (PAM). While ʻakēʻakē are presumed to breed on Maui and carcasses are salvaged from time to time, breeding locations remain unknown. Songmeter Mini recording units (Wildlife Acoustics) were used to survey 66 individual sites in 2024, and partners at the Listening Observatory for Hawaiian Ecosystems (LOHE) lab at UH Hilo performed the data analysis. Haleakalā National Park conducted analogous surveys within National Park territory at 17 sites. ʻAkēʻakē were detected at 17 sites across the island, with high call densities at seven of the sites, suggesting nearby breeding aggregations. The survey will continue in 2025 to 1) survey additional locations and 2) refine the search for possible breeding aggregations at the sites with high call densities in 2024.