Juvenile White-tailed Sea Eagle (Ojiro-washi) (left) and juvenile Steller’s Sea Eagle (O-washi) (right)

Before dawn we left Rausu in a boat for a rendezvous with Steller’s Eagles at the floating ice in the Nemuro-kaikyo Strait between Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands.

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Steller’s Sea Eagle (O-washi)

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Steller’s Sea Eagle (O-washi) at Dawn

The Kuril Islands, just north-east of Hokkaido, have been part of Russia since the Second World War.  Khrushchev apparently contemplated giving them back to Japan in the 1950s but it never happened.

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Steller’s Sea Eagle (O-washi)

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Juvenile White-tailed Sea Eagle (Ojiro-washi)

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Steller’s Sea Eagle (O-washi)

Steller’s sea eagles are the world’s heaviest eagles, weighing up to 9 kilos.  Their wingspan can be up to 2.5 metres or 8.2 feet.  They also have the largest head and beak of any eagle.  The world population is around 5,000 and they are classified as vulnerable.

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Steller’s Sea Eagle (O-washi)

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Steller’s Sea Eagle (O-washi)

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Steller’s Sea Eagles (O-washi) and White-tailed Sea Eagles (Ojiro-washi)

Steller’s eagles develop adult plumage and become sexually mature at about 4 to 5 years old.  They  live more than 30 years in the wild.

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Steller’s Sea Eagle (O-washi)

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Steller’s Sea Eagle (O-washi)

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Steller’s Sea Eagle (O-washi)

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Steller’s Sea Eagle (O-washi) harassing juvenile White-tailed Sea Eagle (Ojiro-washi)

Steller’s Sea Eagles winter in Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands, while in summer they are further north along the Asian coast.

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White-tailed Sea Eagle (Ojiro-washi)

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Steller’s Sea Eagle (O-washi)

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Steller’s Sea Eagle (O-washi)

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Steller’s Sea Eagle (O-washi)

The classification of vulnerable for Steller’s Sea Eagles means that they are at risk of becoming endangered.  Their reproduction rate is fairly low and the survival rate of chicks not that high.  They would be vulnerable to increased development in the areas in Siberia in which they breed.  Oil exploitation is possible in the region.  They breed in remote locations that are not easy to monitor so it could take some time to identify ecological changes causing fewer fledglings.

A few years ago, the sea eagles were experiencing reduced fish supply around Hokkaido due to human overfishing.  At the same time, the Japanese government was encouraging hunters to shoot deer to control numbers and the eagles took to eating deer carcases left by the humans.  Unexpectedly, this led to significant deaths by poisoning from lead in cartridges in the deer carcases – it only takes a couple of pellets to kill an eagle.  The Japanese Government has banned bullets and shotgun pellets containing lead in the area so it’s probably no longer a problem but is a good example of how the welfare of wildlife can be finely poised.  (Article).

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Steller’s Sea Eagle (O-washi)

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Steller’s Sea Eagle (O-washi)

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Steller’s Sea Eagle (O-washi)

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Steller’s Sea Eagle (O-washi)

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GPS Location.