Eleven out of 15 species of sea ducks appear to have declining populations within some portion of their range (exceptions are common goldeneyes, buffleheads, red-breasted mergansers and common mergansers). Furthermore, two species (Steller's eider and spectacled eider) are listed as threatened. Thus, waterfowl managers need current, science-based models to establish sustainable harvest strategies for sea ducks, and they need it now.
Sea Duck Bibliography as compiled by duck Data 1935-2011
Sea Duck Joint Venture. 2011. Sea Duck Joint Venture Implementation Plan for April 2011 through March 2014. Report of the Sea Duck Joint Venture. Available at U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, Alaska, and Environment Canada, Sackville, New Brunswick. Also available at seaduckjv.org . 48 pp.
OBJECTIVE
Sea Ducks have been marginalized in Waterfowl conservation and management programs as most attention has been focused on the "sport ducks" notably mallards. In fact much of our understanding of the demography and harvest of ducks is based on the mallard model. Preceived lack of interest in the Sea Ducks had led to liberal management of this group. Large harvests in Southern areas and intense subsistence use in the North have proved a dangerous combination.
Wiggins, D. (2005, October 17). Harlequin Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus): a technical conservation assessment. [Online]. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region.
Cooke, Wells. 1906. Distribution and Migration of North American Ducks, Geese and Swans. United States Department of Agriculture Bulletin. No. 26. 46 pp.
This study is a large scale, multi-year, collaborative project that will use satellite telemetry to document annual migration patterns and habitat use. Driven by a lack of knowledge on sea duck distribution, migration patterns, and seasonal habitats used, the Sea Duck Joint Venture (SDJV) partnership has launched a large-scale satellite telemetry study of sea ducks in the Atlantic Flyway. From 2009 to 2013, about 300 transmitters will be deployed in four species: Black Scoter, Surf Scoter, White-winged Scoter, and Long-tailed Duck - all species of high conservation concern.
The Atlantic Seaduck Project is being conducted to learn more about the breeding and molting areas of seaducks in northern Canada and more about the feeding ecology of seaducks on wintering areas, especially Chesapeake Bay. Satellite telemetry is being used to track surf scoters wintering in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, and black scoters on migrational staging areas in New Brunswick, Canada, to breeding and molting areas in northern Canada
As constituted here, the tribe Mergini includes all the species which Delacour and Mayr (1945) originally placed in the group.
Delacour later (1959) removed the four species of eiders and placed them in a separate tribe, Somateriini, between the dabbling ducks and
pochards. This was done apparently as a result of Humphrey's anatomical studies (1955, 1958), which suggested that the eiders might