Thousands of kids have joined the research team to work on The Hawaii Study.  The rest of us are based either in the field or in laboratories and offices. Click on the names below to see more information about each team member. 

Andrea Schwandt		Kate Huyvaert
Patty Fernández	Paul Sievert		Dave Anderson

Our field scientists collect data on the birds' behavior when they are at their nests and they manage the transmitter attachment.  It takes toughness as well as intelligence to do the field work, because albatrosses are big, powerful animals.  We have to handle the birds briefly to attach the transmitters, and it takes strength and athletic skills to keep the birds under control during that process.  Our field biologists must be mentally tough also, because most albatross species nest on remote oceanic islands, far from civilization.  The scientists camp for months on end with no running water or telephones or television.  If you don't mind leaving behind creature comforts, then you might make a good field biologist, like Kate Huyvaert or Andrea Schwandt.

Kate and Andrea are both working on their Master's Degrees, and they handled the field part of The Galapagos Study, and they each spent over eight months at our camp in the Galapagos Islands!  The important quality that separates successful field biologists like them from other people is a persistent curiosity about why Nature is the way it is.

Paul has already completed quite a bit of field research on the Laysan and black-footed albatrosses that we are tracking.  For his doctoral dissertation he tested hypotheses to explain how marine birds get by with little freshwater to drink on their nesting island and at sea.

Frans Juola and Laura Carsten managed all of the fieldwork on Tern Island during the 1999 tracking.  Both are trained biologists, and they are really good at handling the birds and making decisions on the fly about how to accomplish The Albatross Project's goals.

Dr. Beth Flint  is a Biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Honolulu, Hawaii.  She and her colleagues are responsible for the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge that the Laysan and black-footed albatrosses use as their nesting grounds.  Few predator-free nesting areas exist for albatrosses to use, and small oceanic islands are about the only really safe places for them.  The Fish and Wildlife Service monitors the populations of albatrosses and other plants and animals in Hawaii.  Beth's work to preserve the ecosystems of the north-west Hawaiian islands is essential for albatross conservation.  Our field team works hand-in-hand with Beth's office in the tracking research.