To encourage public engagement in protecting Hawaii’s seabirds, Sea Life Park announced it is holding two events this week in advance of reopening its Seabird Sanctuary and Seabird Rehabilitation Facility, which have been closed for renovation since September.

Now through Thursday on the park’s website, the public can help choose names for two new residents, a brown booby and a wedge-tailed shearwater.

On Saturday at 11:15 a.m., park visitors will be invited to attend an in-person blessing at the sanctuary, a 500-square-foot enclosure within the grounds of Sea Life Park. The winning names also will be announced, followed by educational presentations and a scavenger hunt.

Besides the birds, guests of honor will be members of Girl Scouts of Hawai‘i Troops 257 and 383, who used earnings from their Girl Scout Cookie sales to donate seabird kennels to the rehabilitation facility in 2018.

The seabird sanctuary provides a home to wild seabirds that have been brought in for rehabilitation, said Beth Doescher, a veterinarian for the park, in an email.

The rehabilitation facility has assisted several hundred seabirds each year, especially during “shearwater season” from November to January, when shearwater fledglings can become disoriented by electric lights while flying at night and might land far from their nesting area, exposing them to predators, traffic and lack of food.

After an assessment and treatment period, a bird may be deemed healthy and released back into the wild, Doescher said, but “those birds deemed non-releasable due to a chronic injury — an abnormal wing so they cannot fly, blind in one eye so they cannot hunt, etc. — are provided sanctuary.”

Currently, there are seven permanent residents, including wedge-tailed shearwaters, a brown booby, a sooty shearwater and a great frigate bird. Of the 22 seabird species in Hawaii, some are threatened, such as the Newell’s shearwater (threatened) and the Hawaiian petrel (endangered), Doescher said.

While not all birds received by Sea Life Park make it back into the wild, the park has a highly successful rehabilitation and reintegration rate, with 75% to 85% of injured seabirds released back into the wild, said Valerie King, the park’s general manager.

With the addition of new pools, and grounds designed to incorporate natural shoreline habitat elements, the updated areas will advance Sea Life Park’s commitment since the early 1970s to the conservation of seabirds in Hawaii, she added.

“Sea Life Park has a long history of offering a place of refuge for marine animals that are injured, endangered or deemed nonreleasable,” King said, “(and) these dynamic renovations will further our work with native seabird species.”

In addition to healing injured seabirds, the park and its conservation partners work to educate the public on how to protect seabirds and signs of distress to look for.

Many of the injuries are caused by cats, mongooses or marine debris like fishing lines, hooks or nets. Each year, an estimated 5 tons of plastic is fed to seabird chicks by parents who mistake it for floating fish eggs or other food, according to the park’s website, which asks that everyone reduce, reuse and recycle.

Sea Life Park partners with Hawaii Wildlife Center on the Big Island, and the Hawaiian Humane Society and Feather and Fur Animal Hospital, which are designated drop-off sites for seabirds in need.

For park admission prices and to vote on seabird names, visit sealifeparkhawaii.com.