KAPA’A, KAUA’I - It is a rite of passage for fourth grade classes at Island School and for Newell’s shearwaters (‘A‘o), listed as a critically endangered seabird.

For at least the past decade, students have received immersion in the remarkable life and behaviors of ‘A‘o, first in the classroom and then at Lydgate Park. On Tuesday, four fledgling shearwaters were released by local elected officials to begin a two-year-long journey out to sea.

Before the releases, as she was doing final health checks on the birds, Jacqueline Nelson, senior program manager with Save our Shearwaters (SOS) remarked, “They’re a unique species to work with. It’s special that we get to work with these creatures that can live out on open ocean for years at a time and not touch land if they don’t need to.”

Unfortunately, each fall for hundreds of Newell’s shearwaters, their first contact with land is unexpected and the reason they end up in the care of SOS. The birds literally fall to the ground after being attracted by artificial lights. According to the nonprofit American Bird Conservancy, “Young birds heading to sea for the first time are often attracted by the nighttime artificial lighting of playing fields, hotels, resorts and streets. They become disoriented and circle the lights until they become exhausted and fall to the ground, where they may be injured or killed by cars, cats or dogs.”

All the main Hawaiian Islands have annual bird fall-out programs, where people are encouraged to bring fallen birds in for check-ups and treatment if necessary. “They get a full head-to-toe examination. If they have something going on we can attempt to treat it. If it’s a normal grounded bird, often the turnaround is quick,” Nelson explained.

The SOS staff releases birds regularly, but the Newell’s shearwater releases observed by the fourth graders is always significant. Prior to release day, experts from the Kaua‘i Endangered Seabird Recovery Project (KESRP) spend time in the classroom educating the keiki about ‘A‘o and the threats they face.

On Tuesday, KESRP Coordinator Dilek Sahin tested the student’s newfound knowledge and received responses like, “I learned that sea birds when they’re old enough they fly for three to five years and they rest on the water and they come back,” and, “When they’re feeding their babies they go out to sea to get food for one to two weeks.”

Nelson congratulated the keiki on their answers, “You guys all got those questions right, which makes me very proud. The four birds that I have today were found by the public. So, they could have been found by you guys.”

The hope is the students will not only inform the adults in their lives about the procedures for rescuing a fallen seabird and getting them to a rehabilitation center, but will become active conservationists throughout their lifetimes.

Sahin added, “These endangered seabirds mostly live out of sight up in the mountains. They are active at night. It’s important to let people know that they are facing threats. If we have a connection, it will be more possible to protect them, to facilitate the conservation of this species. We need to help of the public and new generations to find and rescue these birds.”