Download Presentation Notes – fully editable, add your own notes! Lesson 1

Presentation Notes – fully editable, add your own notes!
Lesson 1 – Introduction to Seabirds
Slide 4. Birds, like the Black-footed Albatross, that spend most of their lives at sea are known as
seabirds. Discuss with students what it must be like for these animals, which spend the large
majority of their lives at sea.
Slide 5. Seabirds live in all the oceans – Sophie Webb painted a congregation of seabirds, tuna
and dolphins targeting a school of flying fish in the Tropical Pacific.
Slide 6. Seabirds live in all the oceans – Sophie Webb painted a congregation of shearwaters,
diving alcid seabirds, and humpback whales feeding in Bering Sea waters where prey fish are
often found in great densities.
Slide 7. Brown Booby incubating eggs.
All seabirds return to land to breed, except the Emperor Penguins that only need frozen ocean.
But even when nesting on land, seabirds spend most of their time at sea. Discuss with students
why seabirds do not spend much time on land, and the activities in which they engage while
out at sea, e.g., feeding, flying, swimming, etc.
Slide 8.
Some of these species are very familiar—others are not. They come in many “shapes and
sizes,” but seabirds share their dependence on the ocean for meeting their needs.
Brown Pelican – photo by David Gardner on Año Nuevo Island
Emperor and Adelie Penguin – photo by Noah Stryker at Cape Crozier, Antarctica
Atlantic Puffin – photo by Henrick Thorburn in Iceland
Western Gull – photo by David Gardner on Año Nuevo Island
Slide 9. This lesson will focus on these two species, which spend their time traversing the
Pacific Ocean (common English and Hawaiian names).
Slide 10. Robert Cushman Murphy (April 29, 1887-March 20, 1973) was an American
ornithologist and curator of birds for the American Museum of Natural History in New York –
and a lover of poetry.
Image: A Wandering Albatross, one of the largest seabirds in the world, catches an updraft from
the MV Ushuaia research vessel in the Drake Passage. Photo by Kenin Turner.
Slide 11. Explain to students that these black dots represent the locations of 47 Black-footed
Albatross tracked by satellites during summers. In Lesson 2, students will learn more about
satellite tracking and mapping the routes of real albatross.
Slide 12. The different color “spaghetti tracks” show the paths of 13 individual albatross that
started from three locations: Kure Atoll, Tern Island, and Cordell Bank. These birds were
tracked for only 3 months of their lives in the summer time. Satellite transmitters fall off when
birds molt, or stop working for other reasons. Imagine if scientists could follow them for an
entire year!
Slide 13. A Black-footed Albatross, named after a bright star called Zubenelgenubi, flew all the
way across the Pacific Ocean in less than 2 months – from California to Japan.
Slide 15. The wingspan of a bird is described as the distance from the tip of one wing to the tip
of the other when outstretched.
Slide 16. Art at the Royal Albatross Visitors Center in Dunedin, New Zealand.
North Pacific Albatrosses are relatively small compared to albatrosses in the southern
hemisphere around New Zealand. For example the Wandering and Royal albatross have
wingspans over 11 feet!
Slide 18. This is a map of the Hawaiian Islands. The green islands are the Main Hawaiian
Islands. The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are a series of atolls, sandy islands formed around
coral reefs. The black line is the border of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National
Monument established to protect the ecosystems and cultural heritage.
Learn how to pronounce here: http://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/about/pronounce.mp3
Slide 19. This slide describes the albatross reproductive cycle. Encourage students to creatively
represent this cycle.
Slide 20. Midway Atoll, an island in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, is a World War II battle
site. Many thousands of Laysan Albatross raise their young here among the runways and
military buildings.
Slide 21. Two Laysan Albatross adults doing a courtship or mating dance – the many poses
include “sky pointing” as seen here.
Slide 22. The Black-footed Albatross perform a different dance sequence specific to their
species.
Video of dancing albatross provided for download or online viewing at
http://www.DownloadWinged Ambassadors.org.
Slide 23. Video clip of a Black-footed Albatross pair dancing provided for download or online
viewing:
http://www.DownloadWingedAmbassadors.org
Note there is a version with dancing only and a longer version ending in mating.
Slide 24. Female albatross breeding in the Pacific lay a single large egg in November or
December. Two eggs in a nest usually means the pair bond is between two females. Pair bonds
can last a lifetime or until one of the birds dies or disappears.
Slide 25. Albatross parents take turns incubating the egg for about 2-3 months.
Slide 26. For the first few weeks when chicks are little, they require constant protection to
survive the heat, wind and rain. If the island has predators, such as rats, they especially need
protection until they are big enough to fend for themselves in the nest.
Note the purple plastic band on the parent’s leg with a unique number engraved on it.
Biologists band albatross to follow individuals and learn about their lives.
Slide 27. As they grow, adult feathers replace the fluffy down.
Slide 28. The parents feed chicks by regurgitating food and nutritious oil into their throats.
Slide 29. Video clip of a Black-footed Albatross parent feeding its chick provided for download
or online viewing:
http://www.DownloadWingedAmbassadors.org
Slide 30. When their wing feathers are fully grown, they often exercise and practice flying by
flapping and hopping, especially in the wind and rain.
Slide 31. Video clip of chicks exercising their wings and practicing flying provided for download
or online viewing:
http://www.DownloadWingedAmbassadors.org
Students will also enjoy a video clip with music from Chris Jordan’s Midway Journey film – Enter
the Heroes: http://vimeo.com/36745838.
Slide 32. Other tubenoses in the order Procellariiformes – Albatrosses, Petrels, Shearwaters,
and Storm-petrels.
Slide 33. A special gland allows this taxa of seabirds to drink seawater and release excess salt.
Slide 34. Laysan Albatross chick. Close up of its nostril openings and grooves where water and
salt flow out. Albatross chicks can be very curious and often approach people and cameras.
However, like most wild animals, albatross chicks do not like to be touched or handled.
Slide 35. Adaptations: Albatross feed almost exclusively from the ocean surface because they
can only dive underwater a few feet. They eat primarily fish, fish eggs, and squid. Their wide
gape allows them to eat larger items than you might think possible.
Slide 36. Webbed feet are well-suited for life at sea.
Slide 37. Sailors of the Air
Albatross can travel long distances without flapping their wings. They take advantage of wind
generated just above the waves that allows them to rise quickly to 10 meters above the ocean.
Then they glide downwind and enter another wave to rise again. This technique is known as
dynamic soaring.
Illustration from WHOI Graphic Services, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Slide 39. The ocean is Earth’s dominant feature.
Slide 40. This Google Earth image centered in the Pacific Ocean demonstrates the large area of
water compared to land.
Slide 41. Identify three of the five major ocean basins:
Left to Right: Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Ocean Basins
Slide 42. Identify the other two major ocean basins:
Left to Right: Arctic and Southern Oceans
Slide 43. An atypical view of the planet viewed from the south. Identify the continents and
then the ocean regions.
Animated map exhibiting the world's five oceanic divisions (Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and
Southern) that are connected and make up one global ocean.
Public Domain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_ocean_map.gifture)
Slide 44. Seabirds share their ecosystem with other familiar animals, like this sea turtle in
Hawaiian waters.
Slide 45. Seabirds share their ecosystem with other familiar animals, like this Mako shark.
Slide 46. Seabirds share their ecosystem with other familiar animals, like these Pacific Whitesided Dolphins in waters off California.
Slide 47. Phytoplankton, including these diatoms and cyanobacteria, convert the sun’s energy
into sugars through the process of photosynthesis. This energy is transferred through the food
chain.
Slide 48. This is a sample food chain (a simplified food “web”) for albatross.
Slide 49. Plankton nets, like these (a bongo net and a hoop net), are used to collect plankton
samples for study.
Slide 50. A close up of a single krill, a small pelagic crustacean related to lobsters and crabs.
This group of zooplankton makes up a critical link in the food chain of many ecosystems.
Lesson 2 – Introduction to Seabirds
Slide 4. A crucial skill for ocean exploration is to map your location, often with no landmarks.
Slide 5. Discuss with students the challenges and specialized skills needed to traverse the
Oceans without electronic navigational equipment, e.g., GPS and radar.
This painting shows a traditional double-hulled voyaging canoe used historically and today in
Hawai‘i.
Slide 6. Discuss with students the features and capabilities of modern research vessels (e.g.,
navigation: notice antennas; propulsion, notice chimneys; research equipment, notice a-frame
and winches to deploy / retrieve nets and instruments; and safety equipment, notice safetyrings, fire extinguishers in red boxes, and safety inflatable boat).
Slide 7. Technologies used in science vary widely. Satellites, such as the one shown here, have
become incredibly important tools for remote sensing of the Earth, communication and data
transmission to / from vessels (including satellite tracking of animals).
Slide 8. Scientists have long wondered where albatross travel.
Slide 9. We can visit islands where they raise chicks to learn about their life on land, but they
travel too fast and too far to follow by boat or plane in the ocean – where albatross spend the
majority of their life.
Slide 10. Scientists collect various data from research vessels such as the number of whales and
seabirds seen, the temperature of the ocean at different depths, and the amount of fish in a
trawl sample.
Slide 11. The first birds ever Black-footed Albatross tracked from Hawai‘i– in 1998 by Dave
Anderson from Wake Forest University (http://www.wfu.edu/biology/albatross/) - confirmed
this migration route. Birds travelled over 9000 km, from their colony to California and back, to
feed for their chicks.
Slide 12. In 2008, scientists tracked more Black-footed Albatross from Kure Atoll, the oldest
and westernmost coral atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian chain. Each different colored line
indicates a single migration path of an individual Black-footed Albatross. Notice that the two
original tracks from Tern Island are also shown. Do the birds from the two colonies visit the
same places?
Slide 15. Technology has enabled us to follow them. Notice the small transmitter taped to this
bird’s back feathers and the tiny antenna sticking out. This transmitter sends information to a
satellite in space.
Slide 17. Use coordinates to track positions of individual albatross on a map of the Pacific
Ocean.
Slide 18. This is the tracking map that students will be using. Point out the three sites where
albatross were tagged and other recognizable places to help them orient themselves.
Students will be given the latitude and longitude of a series of points, which represent the
actual locations of satellite-tracked albatross.
Slide 19. Students will learn about birds tracked from the Kure Atoll breeding colony, the most
western Hawaiian atoll above sea level. It is a Seabird Sanctuary managed by the State of
Hawai‘i in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
Slide 20. Students will learn about birds tracked from Tern Island breeding colony, part of
French Frigate Shoals, a U.S. National Wildlife Refuge managed by US Fish and Wildlife Service
in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
Slide 21. Albatross were also tracked from a migration “hotspot” off central California, Cordell
Bank. Albatross do not nest off California but many Black-footed Albatross travel there to feed
throughout the year, particularly in the late summer after their chicks have grown.
Left Photo: Oikonos biologists on a NOAA vessel over Cordell Bank with Black-footed Albatross
in the background. The birds were attracted to the boat with squid and fish oil.
Right Photo: Oikonos biologist gently holds a Black-footed Albatross on the deck of the
research vessel after attaching the tag with sticky tape and glue on a few back feathers
between the wings. The tag falls off when the tape wears out or when the bird replaces its
feathers in a few months.
Slide 25. Example of a Black-footed Albatross that was tagged in Tern island (Hawai‘i), crossed
the entire North Pacific Ocean to visit California, and returned to its colony. This bird was
breeding and returned home to feed its chick. Remember: each day’s noon position is labeled
with a black dot. When consecutive dots are closer together, the bird is travelling more slowly.
When consecutive dots are farther apart, the bird is travelling faster.
Slide 26. Example of three Black-footed Albatross that were tagged in Kure Atoll (Hawai‘i),
went to the northwest and returned to their colony. These birds were breeding and returned
home to feed their chicks. Ask the class to consider: why did none of these birds go to
California?
Slide 27. Example of a Black-footed Albatross that was tagged in Kure Atoll (Hawai‘i), crossed
the North Pacific Ocean and ended up off Japan. This bird bred in Kure and then migrated to
Japan, where it spent the summer foraging. Remember: each day’s noon position is labeled
with a black dot. When consecutive dots are closer together, the bird is travelling more slowly.
When consecutive dots are farther apart, the bird is travelling faster.
Slide 28. Another example of a Black-footed Albatross that was tagged in Kure Atoll (Hawai‘i),
crossed the North Pacific Ocean and ended up in the Gulf of Alaska. This bird bred in Kure and
then migrated to Alaska, where it spent the summer foraging. Remember: each day’s noon
position is labeled with a black dot. When consecutive dots are closer together, the bird is
travelling more slowly. When consecutive dots are farther apart, the bird is travelling faster.
Slide 29. Another example of a Black-footed Albatross that was tagged in Kure Atoll (Hawai‘i),
crossed the North Pacific Ocean and ended up in the Gulf of Alaska. This bird bred in Kure and
migrated to Alaska, and moved around a great deal, even coming down to Canada and
Washington State. Remember: each day’s noon position is labeled with a black dot. When
consecutive dots are closer together, the bird is travelling more slowly. When consecutive dots
are farther apart, the bird is travelling faster.
Slide 30. Example of a Black-footed Albatross that was tagged in Cordell Bank (California)
crossed the entire North Pacific Ocean and ended up off Japan. This bird was tagged at a
feeding area during summer and was free to travel across the entire ocean because it did not
have a chick waiting to be fed at the colony.
Slide 31. Example of movements of the same Black-footed Albatross tagged in Kure Atoll
(Hawai‘i). This bird went to the northwest to forage and returned to the colony to feed the
chick one last time. Then, the bird started its post-breeding migration and was free to travel far
away, without having to return to the colony. Ask the class to consider: why did this bird not
go to California?
Slide 32. This is a map of all 12 albatross tracks in the Lesson 2 Handout. Each Tag ID is listed in
the legend and individually colored.
Slide 34. For many years biologist have used tags that send out a radio signal. This required a
person, stationed on a mountain top or a plane, to be patiently listening with headphones for a
“ping”. Here a biologist in Antarctica is listening with a radio antenna for penguins tagged with
a radio transmitter to return home.
Slide 35. Satellites can “hear” or receive the signal from satellite tags (if the batteries are still
working) and send the data to a processing center, where they are decoded and sent to your
computer by email. This technology is better than radio tracking for learning about far ranging
animals because it can cover the entire world, but it is much more expensive.
Slide 38. The Pink-footed Shearwater raises chicks on islands off Chile. One colony is on the
famous Robinson Crusoe Island.
A track of this shearwater is provided that was captured and tagged at sea off southern
California. Will this bird return to its breeding colony in Chile?
Lesson 3 –Protecting Ocean Hotspots
Slide 5. Explain to students that these images are of the seafloor, with the water removed.
What features can they observe? Are they surprised?
Slide 7. Several tools and methods have been used to measure the depth and topography of
the bottom of the ocean (such as ship-board sonar and orbiting satellites carrying specialized
sensors).
Slide 8. Explain to students that these images are of the seafloor, with the water removed.
Slide 9. Seafloor Features - Trenches are very deep areas of the ocean. The Mariana trench is
the deepest known trench, with a depth of 10,910 m
Slide 11. Seafloor Features - Continental shelves are shallow (0 – 200 m deep) areas on the
edges of continents and islands.
Slide 12. Seafloor Features - Continental slopes are the steep “drop offs” between the
continental shelf and the abyssal plain. The water depth ranges from 200 and 2,000 m.
Slide 13. Seafloor Features – Example of the steep continental slope off San Francisco Bay. The
colors represent deep (blue) to shallow (orange) depths.
Slide 14. Seafloor Features - The abyssal plain is the deep (2,000 m and deeper) and relatively
flat seafloor making up most of the world’s oceans.
Slide 15. Seafloor Features - Banks are undersea hills, sitting on the continental shelf. They
often reach very close to the surface.
Slide 16. Cordell Bank off San Francisco where researchers tagged Black-footed Albatross that
were attracted to waters above this productive ocean feature. The colors represent deep (blue)
to shallow (orange) depths.
Slide 17. Seafloor Features - Seamounts are volcanic mountains rising over 1,000 m above the
seafloor, but always remaining under the waves. Sometimes they reach to 100 m from the
surface.
Slide 18. Example: Colorized sonar image of Ely Seamount.
Slide 19. A shaded contour map the students will be interpreting. The darker the shading, the
deeper the water. Certain depths are shown with different shades of grey to identify four
bathymetric habitats: continental shelves, continental slopes, seamounts, and the abyssal plain.
Slide 20. Scientists went to two colonies where albatross nest to attach satellite tags to adults
and study where the forage – Kure Atoll and Tern Island, both in the Northwestern Hawaiian
Islands and the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
A nesting colony of Laysan Albatross on Midway Atoll. Midway is located between Kure and
Tern also in the Monument.
Slide 21. Students will learn about birds tracked from the Kure Atoll breeding colony, the most
northwesterly Hawaiian atoll above sea level. It is a Seabird Sanctuary managed by the State of
Hawai‘i in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
Slide 22. Students will learn about birds tracked from Tern Island breeding colony, part of
French Frigate Shoals, a U.S. National Wildlife Refuge managed by US Fish and Wildlife Service
in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
Slide 23. Scientists wanted to learn about albatross migrations from one of their known
“hotspots” off California, Cordell Bank. The albatross do not go to land or raise young here;
rather they come here for predictable food.
Scientists traveled offshore on fishing and research vessels to search for Black-footed Albatross
at sea. While albatross spend much of their life in flight, they land on the water to rest,
socialize, feed, and wait for the wind to increase for more efficient traveling.
Slide 24. The slide shows scientists tagging albatross over Cordell Bank, a feeding hotspot for
Black-footed Albatross. These birds do not nest off California but many travel there to feed
throughout the year, particularly in the late summer after their chicks have grown.
Slide 25. Handout example: The Black-footed Albatross tracks are superimposed on the
bathymetric map, to illustrate the birds’ use of the different bathymetric features. The black
dots show the location of the bird around noon each day the tag was transmitting. So the black
dots are approximately equal distance apart in time. How important would you say Cordell
Bank is as an albatross hotspot?
Slide 26. Not only is it important to protect albatross nesting sites, but it's equally important to
protect their feeding sites, or ʻhotspots.ʻ Let's find out what causes a place to be a feeding
hotspot.
Slide 27. Phytoplankton, including these diatoms and cyanobacteria, convert the sun’s energy
into sugars through the process of photosynthesis. This energy is transferred through the food
chain.
Slide 28. The diatom Odontella aurita.
Image: Richard A. Ingebrigtsen, Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, University of Tromsø
Slide 29. Upwelling is an incredibly important process supporting ocean productivity by
bringing nutrient-rich deep water up to the ocean’s surface. In this slide, note that when wind
moves water offshore. Deeper water is pulled up to replace it.
Slide 30. Upwelling influences water temperature far from the coast, as the cold and nutrientrich upwelled water is transported offshore
Slide 31. Areas of the ocean with abundant phytoplankton are colored green in this satellite
image. Areas with low phytoplankton are depicted in a dark blue color. This is not a true
photograph. From space, a sensor on a satellite measured the actual frequencies of light in the
ocean to calculate productivity. Scientists create colored maps to represent the data.
Slide 32. This is a sample food chain (a simplified food “web”) for albatross.
Slide 33. Areas of the ocean with abundant phytoplankton also support many other organisms
that feed on those tiny plants, like zooplankton, as well as those organisms that feed on them
and so on… all the way to the top predators, like the marine mammals and birds. This is a
painting by Sophie Webb of the abundant wildlife in a hotspot in the Bering Sea.
Slide 35. This map shows existing U.S. National Marine Sanctuaries and Marine National
Monuments – two different types of Marine Protected Areas (MPA). There are other MPAs
throughout the world. Look for protected areas closest to you.
Which of these sanctuaries/monuments are nesting areas for albatrosses and which are feeding
hotspots?
Slide 36. Cordell Bank is a shallow seafloor feature on the central California shelf, home to
diverse fish and invertebrate communities and visited by many migratory seabirds and marine
mammals.
Slide 37. Sanctuaries can protect seafloor features from activities such as drilling and pollution,
depending on their regulations. However, many other seafloor features are not currently
included in existing marine sanctuaries boundaries.
Slide 38. Students may use the Black-footed albatross tracking data to propose a Marine
Protected Area to protect the birds they investigated.
Slide 39. Consider discussing the following 4 slides with students after their own explorations in
Lesson 3.
Slide 40. This albatross, tagged at Kure Atoll, travelled to Kummu Guyot, a distant seamount
evident as a light-color shallower (200 – 2000 m) areas surrounded by dark-color deeper (>
4000 m) ocean, and returned to the colony to feed its chick. Can you calculate the distance
from the colony to the seamount using the scale? Places where albatross spent most of their
time during foraging trips are considered “hotspots”. How many hotspots are there? Can you
calculate the size (width and length) of these albatross hotspots using the scale?
Slide 41. This albatross, tagged within the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary (see insert),
spent most of its time within the central California shelf and slope (shallower than 2000 m
depth), despite going out into the deeper ocean. Along its path, this albatross visited two
seamounts, evident as two light-color shallower (2000 – 4000 m) areas surrounded by darkcolor deeper (> 4000 m) ocean. Can you find them on the map? This albatross did not have a
chick waiting at Cordell Bank, but returned to the place where it was tagged. Why? Places that
albatross revisit are considered foraging “hotspots”. Can you calculate the size (width and
length) of this albatross hotspot using the scale?
Slide 42. This albatross, tagged at Kure Atoll, travelled to the Aleutian Islands, where it spent
time foraging over the shelf and slope (shallower than 2000 m depth), evident by the light-color
shading (see insert). Can you calculate the size (width and length) of this albatross foraging
area using the scale? Places like this, where albatross spent most of their time after breeding
are considered “hotspots”. How many hotspots did this albatross use?
Slide 43. This albatross, tagged at Kure Atoll, travelled to Japan, where it spent time foraging
over the shelf and slope (shallower than 2000 m depth), evident by the light-color shading (see
insert). Can you calculate the size (width and length) of this albatross foraging area using the
scale? Places like this, where albatross spent most of their time after breeding are considered
“hotspots”. How many hotspots did this albatross use?
Lesson 4 – Bolus Analysis
Slide 4. The first part of the breeding cycle is finding a mate. It is thought that the mating dance helps
the albatross identify other birds of the same species at the colony, and determine who will be a good
mate. Video clip of Black-footed Albatross dancing and mating provided for download or online viewing
in Lesson 1 – Introduction to Seabirds: http://www.DownloadWingedAmbassadors.org
Left photo – Laysan Albatross
Right photo – Black-footed Albatross
Slide 5. Hybrids are a mixture between two adults of different species. Notice the picture of the hybrid
– can you tell what parts come from the Black-footed albatross parent and what parts come from the
Laysan albatross parent?
Dancing series by Cheryl Baduini on Tern Island.
Slide 6. Albatross females lay a single egg between November and December. Both parents incubate for
about 66 days, and take turns finding food at sea. Sometimes nests contains two eggs which usually
means that the mates are both female.
Slide 7. The chick develops through three stages:
Brooding: attended continuously for 20 days
Guarding: guarded for another 10 days
Rearing: fed by visiting parents until late June
Slide 8. Albatross parents fly thousands of miles to gather food for their chicks (expanded activities in
Lesson 2 – Migration Connections).
Slide 9. Albatross bring back food to their chicks in their stomach. The chick’s calls and pecking on the
adult’s bill causes the regurgitation of the food.
Video clip of a Black-footed Albatross parent feeding its chick provided for download or online viewing
in Lesson 1 – Introduction to Seabirds:
http://www.DownloadWingedAmbassadors.org
Slide 10. Albatross exercise their breast muscles by flapping their wings. Learning to fly is critical for
fledging.
Video clip of a chicks exercising wings and practicing to fly provided for download or online viewing in
Lesson 1 – Introduction to Seabirds:
http://www.DownloadWingedAmbassadors.org
Slide 11. Before fledging, the chicks regurgitate a bolus, a pellet of the indigestible material they have
eaten in the last six months.
Slide 12. Video clip of a chick regurgitating a bolus provided for download or online viewing:
http://www.DownloadWingedAmbassadors.org
Slide 13. Video clip of an albatross chick that contained 306 pieces of plastic in its stomach, provided for
download or online viewing:
http://www.DownloadWingedAmbassadors.org
Slide 15. Albatross chicks regurgitate boluses of different shapes and sizes depending on the amount
and type of material in their stomachs.
Slide 16. Albatross chicks regurgitate boluses of different shapes and sizes depending on the amount
and type of material in their stomachs.
Slide 17. Whole boluses are measured in the lab – weight, volume, size.
Slide 18. Biologists sort the contents into categories for more measurements.
This entails classifying each item (no matter how small) into several categories: squid beaks, other
natural food items (squid lenses, fish bones), other natural items (pumice, sticks, and feathers) and
plastic.
Slide 19. Students will sort their own virtual boluses and compare their data. All these items were in
the stomachs of two individual albatross: eaten by one parent and then fed to their chick.
To ease counting the numerous squid beaks, section the image into quadrats or suggest that students
draw a grid over the image with a ruler.
Slide 20. Category descriptions:
Non-Prey
Plastic Fragment – Rigid and hard complete or broken pieces in any shape (caps, broken bottles, toys)
Plastic Foam – Compressible and aerated plastic in any shape (packing foam, rubber)
Plastic Sheet – Flexible, flat and thin sheet of plastic (pieces of plastic bags or tarps)
Plastic Line - Round single or multi-filament line or rope (unraveled fishing nets)
Prey
Squid Beaks – Hard upper and lower beaks of squid
Lenses – Hard eye lenses from fish and squid
Slide 21. Many fragments can be identified… but many are unrecognizable broken pieces of once larger
items. Every fragment can also be measured and scored for color.
Slide 22. Albatross boluses contain indigestible hard remains of food items, including squid beaks and
squid eye lenses. Some food completely digests and is rarely found in boluses (such as fish eggs, fish
tissue and even bones).
Slide 23. In addition to squid beaks and fish bones, this is another natural indigestible item albatross
regurgitate – the eye lens of a squid.
Slide 24. In addition to squid beaks and fish bones, this is another natural indigestible item albatross
regurgitate – the eye lens of a squid.
Slide 26. Even though the two albatross species breed at the same islands – their boluses are made up
of different materials. They also ingest fragments of different sizes.
Slide 27. Scientists have been studying boluses from Kure Atoll and Tern Island, to investigate whether
birds from different colonies are ingesting different amounts and types of marine debris. These are just
two of the many islands where albatross nest in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
Slide 28. Students will learn about diets of chicks born at the Kure Atoll breeding colony, the most
northwesterly Hawaiian atoll above sea level. It is a Seabird Sanctuary managed by the State of Hawai‘i
in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
Slide 29. Students will learn about diets of chicks born at Tern Island breeding colony, part of French
Frigate Shoals, a U.S. National Wildlife Refuge managed by US Fish and Wildlife Service in the
Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.
Slide 30. Example data from Natural Bridges High School, Santa Cruz, CA
Items found in five boluses analyzed using Excel tools (tool available at
http://www.oikonos.org/education).
Teacher: Tamara Meyers
Slide 31. These are real data from Hawaii Pacific University researchers.
These are box plots, showing the mean (horizontal line), 25% and 75% of the distribution (top and
bottom of the box), 5% and 95% of the distribution (error bars), the maximum and the minimum values
(dots).
Even though the students cannot weigh the boluses, they can compare their data to these results.
Slide 32. These are real data from researchers contrasting the proportion of bolus weight that was
made up of plastics (all four types combined).
These are box plots, showing the mean (horizontal line), 25% and 75% of the distribution (top and
bottom of the box), 5% and 95% of the distribution (error bars), the maximum and the minimum values
(dots).
Even though the students cannot weigh the boluses, they can compare their data to these results.
Slide 33. These are real data from Hawaii Pacific University researchers contrasting the proportion of
bolus weight that was made up of squid beaks.
These are box plots, showing the mean (horizontal line), 25% and 75% of the distribution (top and
bottom of the box), 5% and 95% of the distribution (error bars), the maximum and the minimum values
(dots).
Even though the students cannot weigh the boluses, they can compare their count data to these results.
Slide 35. Figure of Surface Ocean Currents, showing the main ocean gyres.
Courtesy of Office of Naval Research; http://www.onr.navy.mil/focus/ocean/
Slide 36. Average wind speed (SHOWN BY THE COLORS) and direction (SHOWN BY THE ARROWS) during
June, as measured by satellites. Brighter colors signify higher wind speeds.
SCOW wind fields are now based on 122 months (September 1999 - October 2009) of QuikSCAT
scatterometer data. http://cioss.coas.oregonstate.edu/scow/index.html
Slide 37. The wind pushes the ocean water and everything else floating on it or drifting in it, including
many organisms.
Photos all from NOAA or author David Hyrenbach
Slide 38. Simple graphic of large-scale convergence of floating material created by persistent winds.
This dynamic process also influences how surface water sinks and mixes.
To understand large ocean currents and wind, scientists use satellites and advanced sensors attached to
floats. In 1992, an entire shipping container of floating toys, including rubber ducks, fell into the ocean
during bad weather and as these ‘duckies’ eventually wash up on beaches all over the Pacific,
oceanographers are also using these sightings to improve predictions.
Slide 39. In the North Pacific, two major forces influencing the movement of prey and trash where many
albatross forage include the gyres driven by the clockwise North Equatorial current and the gyre driven
by the counter-clockwise Alaska subarctic current.
Especially high concentrations of floating debris have been noted in areas between Hawai‘i and
California as well as off the coast of Japan. This graphic shows the areas often referred to as Garbage
Patches. Marine debris also concentrates along convergence zones and in smaller features such as
eddies (ocean whirlpools).
Slide 40. Pacific albatrosses search vast areas of the ocean for food and we assume consume plastic in
areas where the ocean forces (wind and currents) concentrates prey and trash near the surface as can
be seen with oceanographic models (OSCURS, see last extension slide).
Black dots on this map are locations where 47 Black-footed Albatross that were tracked with satellites
from 2004 – 2008 from two sites: Kure Atoll and Cordell Bank
Painting of 3 North Pacific Albatross species by Sophie Webb – Left to right: Laysan Albatross, Blackfooted Albatross, and Short-tailed Albatross.
Slide 41. Distinguishing food from trash can be difficult. Albatross might also ingest plastic because
food is attached to the trash. In particular, flying fish lay nutritious eggs on floating material in the open
ocean, which today includes plastic materials.
Slide 42. Visit this NOAA web-site to run the Ocean Surface Current Simulator (OSCURS) model:
http://las.pfeg.noaa.gov/oscurs/
Lesson 5 – Campus Debris Survey
Slide 4. Trash and other floating items (seeds, wood, and coconuts) are found in all oceans – on the
surface, the bottom, and washed up on beaches.
NOAA’s Marine Debris definition: any persistent solid material that is manufactured or processed and
directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, disposed of or abandoned into the marine
environment or the Great Lakes.
Slide 5. Sandwich: man-made but not persistent (not marine debris); coconut: not man-made and
persistent (not marine debris)
Slide 6. Albatrosses spend the majority of their lives in the open ocean searching for food.
Slide 7. Scientists tracked albatross from Kure Atoll and Tern Island in the Northwestern Hawaiian chain.
The different colors are a single migration path of an individual Black-footed Albatross adult.
Slide 8. Albatross do not eat plastic washed up on beaches, rather they ingest plastic trash floating in
the open ocean where their natural prey is found and then they return to deliver meals to their chicks.
Slide 9. In every nesting colony in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, in the middle of the Pacific
Ocean, you can find skeletons of chicks with stomachs full of our plastic trash. Over the years, the
interior of these islands have become littered with plastic that was transported in the stomach of two
albatross – the parent and then their chick.
Discuss why this is wrong?
Morally
Ecologically
Other perspectives…
Slide 10. Stimulate discussion using this image.
- What if it were people that ended up eating the marine debris?
- Can the plastic (and the associated chemical pollution) that enters marine food webs end up affecting
people?
Slide11. On average, albatross chicks are fed 25 grams of plastic in the 4 months before they fledge
(Kure Atoll, Oikonos-HPU data). If scaled to the size of a 140 lb high school senior, that is the equivalent
weight of 150 bottle caps inside your stomach.
Slide 13.
What kind of litter do we have on our campus?
What does this have to do with marine debris?
How could this litter enter the ocean?
Slide 16. Example data from a school campus. Students can create graphs representing their data on
paper, computer programs, or by other creative means.
Slide 18. You can organize a cleanup of your community anytime.
Ideas and recommendations from the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup website:
http://www.oceanconservancy.org/
Slide 19. Ask students to make some comparisons with these percentages from the International
Coastal Cleanup. Which are most common? How do these Ocean Conservancy data compare to the
data they collected? Why?
Source: http://www.oceanconservancy.org/our-work/marine-debris/2012-data-release.html
Slide 20. Discuss some of the factors that may make a piece of trash more or less threatening in the
marine environment and animals.
Slide 21. Most of the monofilament line in albatross boluses is actually unraveled pieces of netting or
rope. Likewise, most of the hard plastic fragments are broken pieces of larger consumer items that are
degrading in the ocean, such as this bucket.
Slide 22. Plastics can block or even puncture the digestive tracts of many species. In the case of
albatross, they naturally ingest hard items (squid beaks, floating pumice and seeds) and evolved the
ability to throw up things they cannot digest in the form of a bolus.
A large proportion of albatross chicks survive by emptying their stomachs before fledging. Scientists do
not know how many albatross chicks die from ingesting plastic. It likely puts them at risk of dehydration,
nutrient deficiency, and absorbing chemicals. It is often very difficult to prove how an animal died.
There are other seabirds, fish, and mammals that do not naturally regurgitate hard parts. How will
these animals cope with eating our trash?
Slide 23. Common trash, fishing gear, and other debris can entangle many marine and aquatic animals,
including fish, seabirds, ducks, seals and whales.
Over 260 marine species have been known to ingest or become entangled in marine debris, including
86% of all sea turtle species, 44% of all seabird species, and 43% of all
marine mammal species (source Laist 1997, not including fish or invertebrates). These numbers are
certainly much higher now.
In the North Pacific, a review study of seabird ingestion showed 76% of all species studied ingest some
degree of plastic (61 out of 88 seabird species sampled 88; Oikonos and partners data).
Slide 24. Marine animals that humans like to eat can ingest plastic as well. Scientists are studying the
stomachs of popular commercial fish and finding more plastic. This Mahi Mahi, or Dolphin Fish, had a
broken piece of green plastic crate inside its stomach.
Photo by David Hyrenbach on a Sea Education Association cruise from Hawaii to California.
Slide 25. Discuss the life cycle of some items you use of at home, school, or on vacation and how they
might end up in the ocean.
Slide 26. Nearly all rivers and streams eventually lead to the ocean, lakes, or estuaries. Small creeks and
streams join larger rivers, which flow to bays and sounds, and eventually the ocean. When it rains,
materials on land, including soil, chemicals, and litter, are carried through runoff to bodies of water. The
land area that drains into a body of water is known as its watershed
Slide 27. Help students to think about your local watersheds.
Slide 28. The traditional system of land division for Hawaiians, ahupua‘a, includes areas from the
mountain to the sea. Discuss with students why this system makes sense in terms of a watershed-based
approach. What happens upstream affects downstream.
Slide 29. Ask students to be on the lookout for storm drains in their neighborhoods. In most areas,
these drain directly into bodies of water. What are the implications of this fact? Have them pay
attention after rain or windy weather to notice changes.
Slide 30. Discuss with students the types of items that are used just one time versus those that are
reusable. How can they move towards more reusable items in their lives?
Slide 32. The Hawaiian term Kuleana describes a person’s responsibility to themselves and his/her
community. Responsibility means taking accountability for your own actions and your contribution to
the problem and the solution.
Slide 33. Different examples of outreach to share student’s new knowledge with their peers and
communities.
Susan Scott is a biologist, sailor and artist in Hawaii. She inspires interest in beach trash by creating
turtles and murals that travel around to schools and art shows.
Slide 34. Different examples of outreach to share student’s new knowledge with their peers and
communities.
Sophie Webb created this watercolor for a project by Oikonos and the CA Coastal Commission.