Nuʻalolo Kai seabird restoration site

Nuʻalolo Kai is one of the most important cultural restoration sites on Kauaʻi, located on the Nā Pali coast, and seabirds were an integral part of life for the people originally living there. Working with State Parks, the Nā Pali Coast ʻOhana, Hallux Ecosystem and Restoration LLC and other partners, the project aims to restore seabird populations through a combination of predator control and social attraction.

Since the successful removal of the last cat at the site by Hallux in 2018, the site has already seen the successful re-establishment of ʻuaʻu kani (Wedge-tailed Shearwater Ardenna pacifica) with a chick successfully fledged in 2020 for the first time in decades and a rapid near exponential increase in breeding pairs of this species over the subsequent years.

The project will also utilize social attraction (through the broadcasting of seabird calls and decoys) to attract the ʻou (Bulwer’s Petrel) to breed at the site as well as ʻakēʻakē (Band-rumped Storm-petrel) to artificial nest boxes. Additionally we conduct multiple annual nocturnal surveys at the site using night vision and thermal equipment to assess the distribution of the endangered ʻaʻo (Newell’s Shearwater) breeding in the cliff walls and use acoustic sensors to measure changes in call rates over time to assess the overall breeding population of these enigmatic birds.

Seabird Tracking and Movement