US Fish and Wildlife Service Grant: Study of Pacific Barrow¿s Goldeneye Migratory Patterns and Habitat Use

The Sea Duck Joint Venture (SDJV) is a conservation partnership under the auspices of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan with mission to improve our knowledge of sea ducks to facilitate more effective management and conservation. One of the SDJV¿s highest research priorities is to delineate populations of North America sea ducks; i.e., to determine the links among breeding, wintering, molting, and staging areas. The SDJV and partners have been working collaboratively on such a project for Barrow¿s Goldeneye since 2006. This study uses a satellite telemetry approach to document annual migration patterns on a large scale over several years. SDJV funding provides seed money to partners, which is matched with partner funding and resources, to accomplish mutual objectives.

This transfer of Federal funds will allow the Recipient to conduct a study of sea ducks, as part of the SDJV¿s study Migratory Patterns and Habitat Use of Pacific Barrow¿s Goldeneye.

Funds under this Cooperative Agreement award are to be used to support capture of sea ducks using specialized trapping techniques, marking birds with implantable satellite transmitters, and administering the acquisition of location data via the Argos system of satellites. The recipient is responsible for 1) all logistical arrangements for capture of ducks and surgical implantation of transmitters, including veterinary service, 2) downloading Argos data for transmitters they deploy, 4) providing SDJV partner USGS Patuxent with either raw Argos data for marked birds, or by providing account access to them, and 4) creating web-accessible maps illustrating the migratory patterns of marked birds.

The Service¿s role in this project is to 1) provide design and technical guidance and administrative support to the recipient via their participation in this cooperative project, 2) provide satellite transmitters to the recipient, 3) participate in the field portion of this study.

The Service requires annual and final reports and takes responsibility for making information from the study publically available via the SDJV¿s web site, seaduckjv.org. This will help ensure that other stakeholders have access to the information in a timely manner, which will help improve the management and conservation of these birds on an international scale. Reports submitted by the recipient will include a summary of bird movements throughout the annual cycle, a description of key habitats used by marked ducks, and an assessment of site fidelity to wintering, staging, molting, and breeding sites.

Information on bird migration patterns and habitat use will help improve the management and conservation of sea ducks in North America. This project will benefit a host of stakeholders, including federal, state, and provincial wildlife management agencies, and non-government conservation organizations in both the U.S. and Canada. Information from this study is essential to the success of the Joint Venture and therefore of mutual benefit to the Service and other Joint Venture partners.

This award will be a multi-year award to accommodate capture and tagging efforts in 2012 and subsequent years, as well as subsequent data acquisition over the anticipated 2-3 year life expectancy of transmitters.