Saving the Albatross

​         Kelley Williams visited the middle schoolers of Sacred Hearts School on April 14. She is an environmental steward who spent 6 months helping to improve the environment on Midway Island. Midway was a naval base for the United States in WWII, and a naval battle took place there. as a result, the island became contaminated with debris and invasive plants. on top of that, ocean debris drifts on to the island each day making it harder for the wildlife to survive. In addition, invasive mice were introduced to the island because of naval use. all of these factors harm the vegetation and the albatross that live there.
          Albatross nest in only few paces in the world and one of them is Midway. They burrow into the land to create their nest, lay their eggs, and raise their young. Unfortunately, the mice who live there bite at the heads of the albatross while they sit on there eggs. Because they never leave there eggs, they will not move when they're attacked. When plastic floats on the ocean, Albatross mistake it for food, and feed harmful plastic to their young.
          Kealey explained to us how she cleaned the beach of all the debris an the next day it would be like they never cleaned the beach at all. She helped rescue native birds by picking them up and moving them to safer places. What is interesting about these birds is they are not afraid of people but will bite you if you pick them up incorrectly. Also, she would help excavate invasive shrubs and bushes which would be replaced by native plants. She brought down the mice population there by catching them in traps and later on killing them. The Island of Midway has been protected from hunting and fishing making the birds and fish not afraid of humans.