Blown away. Hurricane Walaka, East Island and its lost albatrosses as a case history

East Island, French Frigate Shoals, before and after Hurricane Walaka

Amy Steel (Curtin University, Beeloo/Bentley, Western Australia, Australia) and Jennifer Lavers have pre-published open access in the journal npj biodiversity on two case histories on cyclones affecting seabird islands.  One island group, of special interest to ACAP, is the French Frigate Shoals, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, where a cyclone in 2018 resulted in the inundation and loss of East Island, where Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes and Laysan P. immutabilis Albatrosses once bred.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Islands are key to global biodiversity, yet extreme weather events cause significant mortality of many island species.  Using field and satellite data, we describe two cases where increasing cyclone activity has significantly reduced habitat availability and resulted in mortality on low-lying tropical islands.  We thus advocate for considering future cyclone activity and subsequent ecological recovery in developing suitable adaptation actions, especially in the context of translocation of endangered populations.”

Read more in ACAP Latest News about the loss of East Island here.

Reference:

Steel, A.C. & Lavers, J.L. 2026.  Blown away: cyclone threats to tropical island biodiversity in a changing climate.  npj biodiversity doi.org/10.1038/s44185-026-00155-4.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 28 September 2026