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.
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.
