Points of concern in Sea Duck conservation

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1. What constitutes a sustainable harvest is scientifically unknown and poorly understood and has potential to prevent recovery and accelerate declines in seaducks
2. Excessive seasons, bag, and possession limits imposed on the Mergini tribe is based on the personal bias and opinion of one or two individuals in Alaska without sound biological information.
3. Sea ducks are important indicators of the quality of freshwater and marine ecosystems of northern Biomes
4. Where are the threshold level mortality factors.
5. Cropping ducks too close creates a domino effect which can take species over the sustainability threshold if population are not first stabilized
    a.) botulism, "duck sickness", kills birds by the hundreds of thousands.
    b.) avian cholera respiratory disease, a chief cause of waterfowl death. More
         than 4,000 waterfowl killed just this last 1998 Christmas holiday.
    c.) Salmonella outbreak in songbirds 1998.
    d.) Environmental contaminants: Cadmium, Mercury, Lead, Selenium,
         chromium, Copper, Arsenic
    e.) Threat of oil and chemical spills in wintering grounds
    f.) ship ballast pumping into Alaskan waters bringing unknown microorganisms.
    g.) forest fragmentation
    h.) Increased human population pressure
    i.) Increased boat and equipment technology
    j.) Increased predation
6. Concentration of Bald Eagle populations
7. cumulative effects of stress factors
   

ECOSYSTEM CONSIDERATIONS

1. Ecological regime shift in the North Pacific
2. Pacific Decadal Occillation in its positive phase