A massive hurricane wiped out a remote Hawaiian island home to rare animals overnight
There are growing concerns that tropical islands could disappear due to rising sea levels caused by global warming, but it has been discovered that a remote Hawaiian island disappeared in just one day after being hit by a powerful hurricane.
This Remote Hawaiian Island Just Vanished - Honolulu Civil Beat
In early October 2018, the powerful hurricane ' Walaka ' struck the Hawaiian Islands. The massive hurricane caused great damage throughout the Hawaiian Islands, but it was discovered that it had also wiped out the uninhabited island 'East Island' located in the French Frigate Reef, the largest atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
A satellite image of East Island before the hurricane hit.
After the hurricane passed, you can see that the sand has disappeared from East Island.
The state of East Island as of July 2018 can be seen in the following movie.
Dr. Chip Fletcher of the University of Hawaii, who studied East Island, said that he thought that due to global warming, East Island's area was decreasing year by year and would sink under the sea in a few decades. However, he was surprised that the island was destroyed by a hurricane in just one day, saying, 'Oh my goodness, the island is gone. This is one of the cracks in the barrier that separated diverse ecosystems.'
Dr. Fletcher is concerned about the impact on the ecosystem because East Island was an important habitat for rare animals. 96% of Hawaii's endangered green sea turtles live on French Frigate Reef, where East Island was located, and East Island is home to one-seventh of all green sea turtles. Dr. Charles Litnan, a biological and environmental conservation specialist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said, 'There's no doubt that East Island is an important island for sea turtle nesting.'
French Frigate Reef is also a breeding ground for the rare Hawaiian monk seal, and although their numbers have been declining in recent years, it is believed that about 16% of the total population lived on French Frigate Reef. Of these, 30% are believed to have lived on East Island, where 220 seals were confirmed in 2018. There are concerns that the disappearance of East Island will have an impact on the ecology of this rare, endangered seal.
In addition, according to a research team from the University of Hawaii studying the migration patterns of tiger sharks, they have been observed appearing in the waters around East Island for about two weeks a year and preying on albatrosses floating on the surface of the sea. If the albatrosses stop stopping by due to the disappearance of the island, it is possible that this will have an impact on tiger sharks and related ecosystems. In addition, according to Dr. Litnan, Hurricane Walaka swept away the coral reef that had spread in a crescent shape, and it is believed that the coral was also affected.
Litnan said species are resilient and can repopulate ecosystems by dispersing elsewhere, but added that there may come a point in the future when this resilience is no longer sufficient.
'Even if East Island reappears, it will take time for the environment to stabilize,' said Dr Randy Kosaki of NOAA. 'If the surrounding reefs were destroyed, it could take years for them to recover. Right now, we have more questions than we can answer.'
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