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
We were asked to evaluate the suitability of a turbine powered airplane for waterfowl surveys in interior British Columbia. Previous surveys had been completed by helicopter (Andre Breault, personal communication).
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.
Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation 150 pages
Abstract or Introduction
At first glance the radio transmitter looked like a firecracker with a long fuse. It was a lucky fluke, not a firecracker – that transmitter lying on the Mendenhall Wetlands near Juneau had been implanted in a sea duck ten years earlier and 900 miles south.
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Scoters nests are scattered over a vast area from eastern Interior Alaska across northern Canada, and for this reason, scoter nesting habits have been poorly understood and historically difficult to research. Implanted radio transmitters for ducks have contributed valuable insights in recent years.
Wiggins, D. (2005, October 17). Harlequin Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus): a technical conservation assessment. [Online]. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region.
Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park,
Abstract
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.
Diving ducks wintering in Chesapeake Bay during the last 50 years have accounted for 23% of Atlantic Flyway and 9% of North American populations based on aerial surveys. Continental and local factors have affected these population changes. Loss of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) due to degradation of water quality, has been a contributing factor, although, many other factors related to human population increases have been implicated in the changes in the distribution and abundance of diving ducks.
North American populations of breeding surf scoters and long-tailed ducks appear to be decreasing. Along the Atlantic coast, wintering populations of surf scoters are suspected to be decreasing, while the status of wintering populations of long-tailed ducks remains unknown. These trends have led conservation organizations to assign a "high" relative conservation priority to both species.