Muted lights brighten sea birds' future
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
LIHU'E, Kaua'i — All utility-owned streetlights on Kaua'i are now shielded to help keep stray light from confusing fledgling sea birds as they fly between their mountain burrows and the ocean.
Status: Threatened species Length: 12 inches to 14 inches Wingspan: 30 inches to 35 inches Call: "ah-oh" repeated Flight: Rapid stiff wingbeats and short glides
The Kaua'i Island Utility Co-op, successor to Kaua'i Electric, said it has completed the utility's commitment, made in the 1980s, to put shields on all streetlights.
Newell's shearwater
Painting by Sheryl Ives Boynton, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Hawaiian name: 'A'o
Kaua'i residents have grown accustomed to saving the Newell's shearwaters each fall as the nestlings take their first flights to sea, heading from upland areas across lighted coastal developments toward the ocean. Often, the young birds are attracted to lights and can be seen swooping around until they crash exhausted to the ground or run into towers, cables or utility lines.
Residents retrieve the fallen birds, turning them in to shearwater aid stations, often at firehouses. Biologists gather those birds, releasing healthy ones and treating the injured.
The Save Our Shearwater program two decades ago recommended the shielding of street lamps, hotel spotlights, stadium lights and other sources of illumination to minimize the amount of light that shines upward where it can distract the birds.
Kaua'i Electric started the shielding program during the 1980s, but it suffered a setback in 1992, when Hurricane Iniki destroyed many of the shielded lights.
"We are pleased to announce that over the past 10 months, KIUC has replaced the last 700 old-style lights on its poles. As a result of this work, all 3,049 lights on KIUC poles now follow the Save Our Shearwater program's lighting recommendations," the utility said in a press release.
The lamps have a wraparound housing that creates a lip around the lens to prevent light from escaping upward.
While shearwaters are the main species affected on Kaua'i, smaller numbers of species such as Hawaiian petrels also are vulnerable. Similar fallout by sea birds occurs less frequently on O'ahu and Maui.
