Te Anau programme manager biodiversity Lindsay Wilson left for the main island of Oahu last month, where targeted eradication is taking place on rats, mice, mongooses and cats.
"Kaena Point is the name of the project and that's on the northwestern shore of Oahu," he said.
"It's a really important peninsula which has basically been fenced off with a predator-free fence and it's the most significant seabird nesting site on the mainland of Hawaii."
The peninsula was also an important site for endangered plants and the Hawaiian monk seal, and like New Zealand, Hawaii's fauna was helpless to protect itself, he said.
"It's a very similar situation. The fauna there evolved without any predators, and they've got a number of endangered native bird species over there and quite a few native plants that have been affected by rats, which eat the seedlings."
Although the purpose of the three-week visit for Mr Wilson and Wellington colleague Darren Peters is to advise on the Kaena Point operation, they will also follow up on rat and mongoose control programmes set up three years ago.
"Controlling mongooses over there - they're a bit like stoats in New Zealand. They attack all of their ground-nesting birds.
"Last time we were over there a couple of years ago, we suggested a couple of alternative techniques for controlling them."
The traps suggested were Doc's own New Zealand-designed ferret killing traps - the "Doc 250" - and Mr Wilson said the technology had so far " worked very, very well".
"Basically we came for a presentation at a rat-control conference in Hawaii about three years ago, myself and Darren Peters, and that was based on some of the rat control we were doing over in New Caledonia and the Hawaiian guys were interested in the work we'd done there and were beginning rat control on Oahu."
While they would take a little time in the evenings to explore the island, Mr Wilson said they would remain focused on sharing their expertise.
