During a 160-day public comment period on the proposed listing, the Service received numerous comments supporting protection and none opposing the action. Comments were received from Russia, Norway, Canada, Alaska and the Lower 48. BP Exploration (Alaska), Inc. provided data from 10 years of bird studies in Prudhoe Bay showing that the dramatic decline in spectacled eiders (Somateria fischeri) extends beyond their primary breeding grounds on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
The spectacled eider population has not been counted worldwide. Estimates of the population decline are based on various studies in Alaska. Service biologists estimate that breeding birds on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta declined from 50,000 or more pairs in the early 1970s to a few thousand pairs in the early l990s.
So far, the causes for the dramatic decline in Alaska birds have not been identified. No one knows for sure where spectacled eiders spend most of their lives. After brief summers on Alaska and Russia tundra breeding grounds, they migrate to unknown wintering areas.
The number of nests found during studies on the Yukon - Kuskokwim Delta has declined by an average of 14 percent per year since the mid-1980s. A similar rate of decline in breeding birds has been documented in Prudhoe Bay since 1981. These principal causes for the decline may be found in common migration or wintering range.
Biologists have not counted spectacled eider populations in Russia, although they estimate that perhaps 30,000 to 40,000 pairs nested along the Russian coast twenty years ago.
The Service initiated detailed studies on spectacled eider distribution and survival last year. A satellite telemetry I project will investigate whether these arctic ducks spend the winter feeding near the pack-ice in the western Bering Sea, as suspected. Expanded breeding bird surveys on Alaskas North Slope and exploratory waterfowl surveys in Russia will be continued in 1993.
Further studies will focus on sources of mortality and whether nest and brood losses or adult mortality are causing the population decline. A sister project on Siberias Indigirka Delta will provide a range wide comparison for these Alaska studies. Biologists collected samples of spectacled eider eggs and tissues in 1992 to determine whether the birds are carrying unusual levels of heavy metals or organochlorine contaminants.
Alaska and Russia Natives traditionally harvested these large ducks for food and clothing with no apparent effect on historic populations. Current estimated subsistence harvest in Alaska based on voluntary reports, is at least 500 spectacled eiders per year. In 1992, the Service initiated a public outreach program to inform coastal Alaskans about the plight of the species and to gain compliance with harvest closures until the population recovers. Currently, no harvest of spectacled eiders is allowed under Service policy.
Regional Director Walter Stieglitz will appoint a spectacled eider recovery team to draft a comprehensive recovery plan for the species. This plan will lay out research and management tasks for the Service and cooperating agencies, and establish population goals for removing spectacled eiders from the list of threatened and endangered species.
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