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The male spectacled eider is unique. The painted head of this large sea duck ranges in color from pale green to bright orange, making it one handsome bird. Gaze closely and the distinctive “goggles” or “spectacles” around the eyes that give this eider its name come into focus. Yet all the finery fades away when the mating season ends, and male eiders once again resemble females in their appearance.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
PROTECTION STATUS: Threatened
YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 1993
CRITICAL HABITAT: 24,954,638 acres on the Yukon-Kuskowim Delta and in Norton Sound, Ledyard Bay, and the Bering Sea designated in 2001
RECOVERY PLAN: 1996
RANGE: The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and Alaska’s North Slope, as well as eastern coastal Russia and the Bering Sea
THREATS: Oil and gas drilling, development of coastal sites, increased predation, commercial bottom-trawl fisheries, global warming, lead poisoning, and environmental pollutants
POPULATION TREND: The breeding population of spectacled eiders on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta today consists of no more than 4,000 nesting pairs. Biologists estimate that 9,000 pairs currently nest on Alaska’s arctic coastal plain and at least 40,000 pairs nest in Russia.
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SAVING THE SPECTACLED EIDER
Thanks to the Center, the spectacled eider’s critical habitat will not fade away, like its plumage, come winter. In 1998, we initiated a legal process to pressure the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate critical habitat for this imperiled sea duck. Blind to the threats of oil development in the region, the agency had failed to take action on protecting this habitat for several years.
In keeping with a settlement agreement with the Center and Christians Caring for Creation, the Service initially proposed 47 million acres as critical habitat for the spectacled eider. When the agency made its final designation the following year, the area defined as critical habitat had shrunk to 25 million acres, with habitat in the Beaufort Sea and National Petroleum Reserve eliminated. The Center continues to work to protect these areas.
The spectacled eider faces many threats, primarily oil and gas drilling. In 2007, we successfully interrupted plans by Shell Oil to begin exploration near the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. A court determined that the project’s environmental impacts needed to be reviewed more thoroughly, as well as the potential consequences to a number of threatened species, including the spectacled eider.
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Contact: Brendan Cummings
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