Bird Groups Call on Congress to Clean Up Midway Atoll in Order to Save the Laysan Albatross

The American Bird Conservancy and two Hawaiian birding organizations are calling on the U.S. Congress to fund a cleanup of buildings contaminated with lead paint at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific Ocean. The birding groups estimate that since 1996 as many as 130,000 Laysan albatross chicks have died on the atoll from eating chips of lead-based paint, which was used on 70 buildings at the former U.S. Navy installation. Eating the lead paint chips causes a condition called droopwing, which makes it difficult or impossible for the birds to fly, leading to starvation or dehydration. The American Bird Conservancy estimates that cleanup of the atoll would cost about $5.6 million.

In a paper published in the journal Animal Conservation, scientists calculate that a cleanup of the site would save nearly 200,000 birds over the next half century. About 70 percent of the world’s Laysan albatross population nests on the Midway Atoll.

blog comments powered by Disqus