

INTRODUCTION 
Midway is an Atoll in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean. 
It is in the western part of the Hawaiian chain or Leeward Islands. A 
coral reef surrounds two small islands of coral rock and sand. Sand 
Island, the larger of these, 948 acres in extent, is the site of a U. S. 
Naval Air Base and has a small settlement in the northeastern corner. 
Eastern Island with 334 acres is largely wninhabited by humans. The 
runways on Hastern Island, used during World War II, are no longer used 
except in case of emergency. Both islands have large nesting sea bird 
populations of several species. These birds while in flight over the 
runways of Sand Island are frequently hit by aircraft and are considered 
to be a serious hazard to planes and human life. The currently expand- 
ing facilities at Midway for handling an expected great increase in air 
traffic, particularly in jets and specialized types of aircraft, make 
it imperative to find methods of reducing the hazard to planes caused 
by collisions with birds. At the request of the Bureau of Aeronautics, 
Department of the Navy, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investi- 
gating the problem. 
Preliminary studies by Du Mont and Neff* indicated that the 
Laysan albatross, Diomedea immutabilis, and black-footed albatross, 
Diomedea nigripes, were the chief contributors to the hazard to aircraft. 
Their studies indicated further that ordinary wildlife repellents and 
scaring devices had little chance of success in deterring albatrosses 
either from nesting on their ancestral sites or from flying in dangerous 
areas over the runways. Therefore plans for the current study were to 
go more deeply into the investigation of the population dynamics and 
habits of the albatrosses; also to include study of the other species 
such as sooty terns, Sterna fuscata, which are considered a potential 
hazard to jets and more specialized types of aircraft in the future. 
Previous experience indicated that no measures short of 
eliminating part of the bird population would effect the required 
safety to aircraft. Therefore good wildlife conservation principles 
required finding out what part of the bird population is involved in 
the hazard and what destruction of this segment would mean in terms 
of the total world population of the species. Thus plans called for 
determining the total populations first, the segment of the population 
involved in the hazard second, and measures for controlling this 
segment third. The plans for studies of control measures envision a 
thorough investigation of the habits, life cycles, and population 
dynamics of the birds to be able intelligently to approach the problem 
of keeping them out of the air over the runways; to find a method which 
would be permanent and yet as sparing as possible of birdlife. 
The investigating team of biologists, including Aldrich, 
Robbins,and Rice arrived on Midway on November 17, 1956. Aldrich and 
* Du Mont, Philip A., and Johnson A. Neff 
1955 Report on Midway Islands albatross study. 
In Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife 
Washington, D. C. 
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