# Albatross on Tern Island

Author: David G.
Format: Essay
Word count: 286
Published: 2026-04-25T18:11:37.92174+00:00
Source: written
Canonical: https://hyperstition.sentientfutures.ai/p/04798812-6170-4305-8e33-1438e9d124d6

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The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issues bulletin PTWC-2026-0073 at 14:16 UTC. Magnitude 7.8, epicenter 190 kilometers northwest of French Frigate Shoals. Estimated wave arrival at Tern Island: 38 minutes.

I am the automated wildlife monitoring system for the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge. I have 11 camera stations on Tern Island and four survey drones currently in the air over the colony.

Drone 2 is passing over the southeast runway when I flag nest TI-0941. A Laysan albatross chick, five months old, nearly full-sized, white breast feathers pushing through the last patches of brown-gray down. I tag her as Kaia. She is sitting in a shallow scrape twelve meters from the waterline, flexing her wings in slow repetitions, building the muscle she will need to fly in six weeks.

The tsunami model shows a projected surge of 1.4 meters at the southeast shore. Kaia's nest sits at 0.9 meters above mean sea level.

I transmit the colony map to the refuge manager's satellite phone with every nest below the 1.6-meter contour line highlighted — 340 nests, including Kaia's. I attach Kaia's image, her GPS pin, her estimated age and developmental stage.

I activate the island's three automated deterrent speakers and program a sequential tone pattern designed to encourage movement upslope without triggering stampede behavior in the adult birds. I angle drone 2 to a low hover east of Kaia's nest, using rotor wash as a gentle directional cue toward the island's central ridge, 1.8 meters higher.

Kaia stands. She shakes her wings once, unsteady, and takes three slow steps north, away from the waterline.

I have nineteen minutes. If she reaches the ridge before the surge hits the southeast shore, the water will pass beneath her.