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Laysan
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Laysan (Hawaiian Kauo ), located northwest of Honolulu at N25° 42' 14" W171° 44' 04", is one of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
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Encyclopedia
Laysan (Hawaiian Kauo ), located northwest of Honolulu at N25° 42' 14" W171° 44' 04", is one of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It comprises one land mass of 1,016 acres (4.114 km²), about 1 by 1.5 miles in size (1.6 by 2.4 km). It is an atoll of sorts, although the land completely surrounds a shallow central lake some eight feet (2.4 m) above sea level that has a salinity approximately three times greater than the ocean. Laysan's Hawaiian name of Kauo means egg, referring to its shape and how much life springs from the island.
Geology
Laysan is the second largest single landmass in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, after Sand Island at Midway Atoll. Laysan was created by coral growth and geologic upshift. The fringing reefs surrounding the island cover about . Lake Laysan, the , brown, hypersaline lake in the island's interior, has varied in depth over the decades. In the 1860s, the lake was at most deep, but by the 1920s it averaged three to five feet deep, because of the buildup of sand that had been blown away in sandstorms. The best way to find fresh water on Laysan is to observe where the finches are drinking; the fresh water floats on the saltier water and accumulates around the shore. The tallest point on the island is at fifty feet above sea level, on a large dune that covers much of the northern portion of the island.
History
Discovery and early expeditions
Native Hawai'ians may have known about Kauo before Americans and Europeans sailed their ships into the region in the early 19th century. The first reported sightings of the island were by Massachusetts whalers in the 1820s. One occurred by 1825, as reported by The Nantucket Enquirer. Capt. John Briggs and his whaling crew of New Bedford may haved come across the island as early as 1822. They were among many who took advantage of the newly discovered whaling grounds off the coast of Japan, making the waters around the Northwest Hawai'an archipelago an increasingly popular mercantile route. The whalers, undoubtedly confused and thinking they had discovered Laysan's better-known neighbor Lasianski Island, called both islands "Laysan" despite differing coordinates. In another instance Lasianski was called "Lassion," suggesting the Russian name was easily misinterpreted. The discovery credit for Laysan has, in various publications, been given to Capt. Staniukowitch of the Russian ship Moller, who was there in 1828. Staniukowitch was the first known to map the island and tried unsuccessfully to name it. A U.S. Government survey of Pacific Ocean geography the same year included the whalers' reports, thus solidifying the apparent misnomer "Laysan." In 1857, Capt. John Paty of the Manuokawai annexed Laysan to the Kingdom of Hawaii. In 1859, Capt. Brooks of the ship Gambia travelled to the island, and in his ship log wrote that there was guano there, but "not of sufficient quantity to warrant any attempts to get it."
In 1890, the Kingdom of Hawaii granted George D. Freeth and Charles N. Spencer permission to mine the guano on Laysan anyway, as long as they paid a royalty. This newfound attention to Laysan attracted scientists, and in the next decade, many of Laysan's unique species were scientifically examined for the first time. The working conditions at the guano mines were grueling, but there seemed to be more guano than Capt. Brooks had thought. Around 100 tons were extracted per day. In August of 1900, a fight broke out between the Japanese workers and the management when the workers refused to work anymore; this ended in two deaths and two injuries because of the language barrier.
Guano digging affected the island’s ecosystem dramatically. Professor William Alanson Byron of the Bishop Museum estimated that there were 10 million seabirds on Laysan in 1903, but eight years later the estimation was at little more than a million. In those eight years, the Pritchardia palms that were unique to Laysan, and the island’s sandalwood trees both became extinct.
1894 marked the arrival of Laysan’s most notorious inhabitant, German immigrant Max Schlemmer. Schlemmer introduced Belgium and European Hares as well as Guinea pigs on the island so as to prepare for a future meat canning business. This innocent move would prove to be crucial in the decline of Laysan.
Period of extinction
The rabbits that were introduced to the island multiplied at a quick pace. Soon, the number of rabbits far exceeded the vegetation needed to feed them. Complaints about this and about Japanese poachers led President Theodore Roosevelt to declare the Northwestern Hawaiian chain a bird sanctuary in 1909. Schlemmer continued to allow the Japanese to export illegal bird wings and so was removed from the island. But without plants to hold the earth together, much of the soil and sand became loose and blew about in horrific dust storms. By 1918, the rabbits had eaten so much that the remaining vegetation was only enough to sustain 100 rabbits. Twenty-six plant species had been eradicated, and the Laysan Millerbird had gone extinct.
In 1923, the Tanager Expedition arrived, and the rabbits were exterminated at long last. The bird population had been reduced to about a tenth of its former size, and three endemic taxa had become extinct, plus numerous other plant species. Two other endemic species, the Laysan Duck and the Laysan Finch, survive to this day, but are endangered.
Recent history
Like most of the Northwestern Hawaiian islands, Laysan is currently uninhabited. It is protected by the Hawaiian Natural Life Act of 1961 and cared for by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who have had success in eliminating pests, restoring the island to almost pre-desert state, and restoring the numbers of imperiled species.
All sorts of garbage that is thrown off of ships ends up floating to shore on Laysan. This poses a great danger to the birds, because they swallow the plastic, which remains undigested and crowds the stomach, leaving no room for actual food. Curiously, most of the plastic found is Japanese in origin. Additionally, in the 1990s, biologists found that a container of poisonous carbofuran had floated to shore and burst open above the high tide line, creating a "dead zone" which killed anything alive that went near it. This area is still off-limits.
Sandbur eradication
In 1991, the USFWS started an effort to eradicate alien sandbur, a grass that crowds out the native bunchgrass, which is habitat for the birds. Sandbur was first introduced in the 1960s by US Armed Forces personnel. Costing almost one million dollars, the project ended in 1998 when the sandbur was completely removed. With this threat gone, the USFWS hopes to restore Laysan to how it was before it was discovered. To replace the Pritchardia palms that went extinct, the FWS wants to bring in Pritchardia remota from Nihoa, a similar species to Laysan’s lost fan palm. Next may be Nihoa Millerbirds, to replace the extinct Laysan Millerbirds that were closely related. These transfers would accomplish a two-fold goal: to restore Laysan to its original form, and to protect those two species from extinction by maintaining a second population on Laysan. That way, if diseases, fires, or hurricanes obliterate the Nihoa population, the population can be revived by transplanting some from Laysan.
"Laysan fever"
In 1991, there was the first recording of an illness that was, as of then, unknown. It affected people in varying levels of severity (one woman was evacuated for persistent fever, but others showed very mild symptoms). Cedric Yoshimoto of the University of Hawaii School of Public Health, wrote that "surveillance has identified a newly-described illness of humans termed 'Laysan fever (LF)' It is associated with bites of the seabird tick Ornithodoros capensis... [and] joins a short list of human illnesses associated with seabird colonies..." The symptoms of Q fever overlap significantly with those of Laysan fever, and scientists have speculated as to their possible common causes.
Possible ancient Hawaiian presence
Recently, an archaeologist examining sediment cores found pollen from coconut trees deep below the bottom of the central lagoon. This unexpected find raises several issues. Heretofore, no evidence existed that the coconut ever reached any of the Hawaiian Islands before the arrival of the Polynesian voyagers. Further, there has never been any physical evidence that the ancient Hawaiians extended their explorations of the Hawaiian chain beyond Nihoa and Mokumanamana (Necker). Dating the sediment containing the Cocos pollen is imprecise, but appears to be somewhere between 5,500 years ago, and the arrival of Europeans in Hawaiian waters in the late 1700s. The full length of the core was and is thought to represent a record spanning 7,000 years. Coconut pollen was not found in the deeper (older) part of the core. However, cores from Guam in the western Pacific show the presence of coconut trees there as early as 9,000 years ago, well before human habitation. Hawaiian traditions suggest that the Hawaiians were aware that islands existed to the northwest, and the pollen evidence could be interpreted as proof of early Hawaiian visitation to Laysan. Clearly, more precise dating of the sediment layers will be crucial to better interpreting this find.
Species of Laysan
Laysan is generally regarded as the "gem" of the NWHI, with the most biodiversity. It is home to the Laysan Duck, the rarest duck in the world. The other native land bird of Laysan is the Laysan Finch, an opportunistic hunter. Eighteen other bird species nest here and use Lake Laysan, the only lake in the NWHI, as a rest stop or breeding ground. Laysan also has its share of native plants, many of which, such as Eragrostis variabilis, were extirpated from Laysan during its extinction period and then reintroduced by scientists afterwards, from other Leeward islands. Like most other of the NWHI, Laysan is home to Hawaiian Monk Seals and Green Sea Turtles.
Birds
- Laysan Finch, Telespiza cantans - endemic
- Laysan Duck, Anas laysanensis - endemic
- Laysan Albatross, Phoebastria immutabilis
- Black-footed Albatross, Phoebastria nigripes
- Short-tailed Albatross, Diomedia albatrus
- Great Frigatebird, Fregata minor
- Lesser Frigatebird, Fregata ariel
- White Tern (or "Fairy Tern"), Gygia alba
- Sooty Tern, Onychoprion fuscatus
- Gray-backed Tern, Sterna lunata
- Bristle-thighed Curlew, Numenius tahitiensis
- Pacific Golden Plover, Pluvialis fulva
- Christmas Shearwater, Puffinus nativitatis
- Red-tailed Tropicbird, Phaethon rubricauda rothschildi
- Brown Noddy, Anous stolidus
- Black Noddy, Anous minitus melangogenys
- Masked Booby, Sula dactylatra
- Brown Booby, Sula leucogaster
- Red-footed Booby, Sula sula rubripes
- Bonin Petrel, Pterodroma hypoleuca
- Laysan Rail (or "Laysan Crake"): Porzana palmeri -extinct
- Laysan ?Apapane - extinct
- Laysan Millerbird - extinct
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