Sea ducks are a large group of waterfowl that, relative to other waterfowl species, we know little about. Some sea duck populations are declining or have lower numbers than they did historically, and they depend on sensitive coastal, arctic, and boreal habitats throughout the continent.
The Sea Duck Joint Venture
We are a bi-national conservation partnership of organizations committed to maintaining sustainable populations of North American sea ducks throughout their ranges.
We promote the conservation of North American sea ducks through partnerships by providing greater knowledge and understanding for effective population and habitat conservation and management.
Sea Duck Joint Venture Partner Organizations
News
SDJV Student Fellowship Feature: Holli Holmes, Investigating non-invasive survey methods for occurrence and reproductive success of the Harlequin Duck
Holli Holmes is currently a Master’s student at the University of Montana with Dr. Joshua Millspaugh and Dr. Hannah Specht (Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks), in the College of Forestry and Conservation where she is focused on Wildlife Biology. Holli completed her...
Student Fellowship Feature: Emily Macdonald, Sitting ducks: The vulnerability of nesting eiders to thermal stress in a warming Arctic
Emily Macdonald with a female common eider. Photo: Alysha Riquier Emily is a Master’s student in Integrative Biology at the University of Windsor, Ontario co-supervised by Dr. Oliver Love and Dr. Christina Semeniuk. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Environmental...
SDJV Student Fellowship Feature: Sarah Endyke, Improving estimates of migratory connectivity of juvenile Long-tailed Ducks and Surf Scoters using a dual isotope approach
Sarah while Hiking in the Northeast. Photo: courtesy of Sarah Endyke Sarah received her Bachelor of Science as a double major in Environmental Science and English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2020. There, she took courses in conservation and...
SDJV Student Fellowship Feature: Reyd Dupuis-Smith, Polycyclic Aromatic Compound (PAC) contamination and health implications in common eider ducks at a diesel spill site and a reference site in Nunatsiavut, Canada
Reyd holding a King Eider. Reyd Dupuis-Smith, a 2022 SDJV Student Fellowship Awardee, has dedicated her studies to understanding how anthropogenic factors and pollution impact birds of all kinds. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Manitoba,...
2024 Sea Duck Joint Venture Research Projects
Black Scoter at Izembek NWR, Photo: Kristine Sowl, USFWS We’re thrilled to announce our 2024 Research Projects, a group of five research projects submitted as part of our annual RFP. The Sea Duck Joint Venture aims to fund projects that will provide information on sea...
Student Fellowship Feature: Annie Maliguine, Steller’s eider foraging habitat in Izembek Lagoon, AK
Annie Maliguine is a soon-to-be graduate from the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She grew up in Sacramento California and pursued her bachelor's degree in Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology at UC Davis. It was...
Student Fellowship Feature: Jake Hewitt, Estimating annual recruitment of sea ducks in the Atlantic Flyway using age ratios
There aren’t many opportunities to work hands-on with sea ducks for undergraduate students, so when Jake Hewitt was offered a chance to spend time studying Long-tailed ducks on Lake Michigan, he jumped on it. That experience set in motion a chain of events leading to...
Congratulations to the 2024 Student Fellowship Awardees! Learn more about the students who will move sea duck conservation forward with their work
Now in its second year, the fellowship program was created with the goal of increasing the number of skilled early career professionals interested in sea duck conservation. Student projects may cover any aspects of sea duck management, conservation, and science, and this year’s group is doing so while employing new and innovative ideas all across North America. We can’t wait to see what they discover!
Student Fellowship Feature: Tori Mezebish Quinn, Understanding the threats to sea ducks and diving ducks in New England
Tori Mezebish Quinn is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Rhode Island, where she studies waterfowl in partnership with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. An SDJV Student Fellowship Awardee, Tori is studying how environmental and anthropogenic factors affect sea ducks and diving ducks in southern New England.
Data and Ducks: Developing and compiling transboundary avian data for sea ducks in the Salish Sea
In 2020, a Birds Canada paper detailing 20 years of sea duck population trends in the Salish Sea revealed some unsettling news – many species were currently or had been experiencing population declines. Between 1999 and 2019, White-winged scoters experienced a 4.3% population decline per year, while Black scoters experienced a 15% decline per year, and Long-tailed Ducks a 5% decline per year in the same period. The challenges of understanding and addressing these dramatic population decreases were compounded by a lack of cross-border baseline data on many of the species, making it hard to truly assess the causes and timing of the declines.