“Throughout the State of Hawai‘i on July 29, 2025, it was widely reported that tsunami waves would be experienced first on Midway Atoll before reaching the main Hawaiian Islands. This activity resulted from an earthquake off the Kamchatka peninsula, Russian Federation.”
The summary impact report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is available to read here halfway down the page.
The good news is that the Fish and Wildlife Service staff were able to free ~ 80 entangled birds during the first two days after the Tsunami. The most vulnerable to impact on Eastern Island were the red-tailed tropic bird and sooty tern chicks. “However, due to the time of year and mobility the majority of sooty tern sub-colonies were unscathed. Most over washed areas, even those closest to the beach, had numerous chicks present again shortly after the event, suggesting that many if not most were able to survive.” Additionally, “No turtles were found washed ashore, and the refuge's last mom-pup monk seal pair of the season were seen together, still nursing, at their usual spot of the north shore between Eastern & Spit two days following the event.”
In the not so good news (but could have been much worse compared to the March 2011 Tsunami) this report also speaks to fact that there are lots of Laysan albatross chicks that still haven't fledged. “Due to low winds during the second half of July this year delayed fledging for a large percentage of Laysan albatross. As a result, an unusually large number of chicks moved to and were congregated along the shorelines at the time of the wave, unable or unwilling to fly off. This makes it difficult to assess the true impacts of the tsunami on Laysan Albatross.”
“In summary, Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge estimates that a few hundred albatross chicks and sooty tern chick, as well as a few dozen tropicbird chicks were impacted by the tsunami. We do not believe that any population-level impacts occurred for any of the species on Midway Atoll as a result of the tsunami.”