U.S. Navy officials on Wednesday plan to transport some 45 Laysan albatross eggs in need of refuge to a Windward Oahu site from a nesting area at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in West Kauai.

The eggs will be incubated for about two months before hatchlings are placed on Oahu’s North Shore at the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge, operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Laysan albatross at the Pacific Missile Range Facility pose a potential hazard because they nest near an active runway. In previous years, the Navy has relocated eggs and the adult birds to Kauai’s north coastline area.

Navy spokesman Stefan Alford said that because of limited space on Kauai, the Navy looked for off-island options this year.

Once hatched on Oahu, the chicks will be raised by hand for five months on a diet of squid, fish and vitamins at the James Campbell refuge.

Huge compared with a chicken egg, a Laysan albatross egg weighs about half a pound.

According to the scientific consulting group Pacific Rim Conservation, the seabird’s annual breeding population is estimated at 590,000 pairs in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. But the Laysan albatross, or Phoebastria immutabilis, is contending with threats tied to climate change and sea-level rise because their largest colonies are on low-lying atolls, including Laysan and Midway, said Pacific Rim Conservation co-owner Eric VanderWerf.

"They’re what’s called a ‘species of concern,’" VanderWerf said.

Scientists said recent storm surges have wiped out thousands of albatross nests with eggs or chicks in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.