Identifying migration routes and wintering areas of common and king eiders breeding in Nunavut, Canada and Greenland

Project Number: 6

Year Funded: 2003

Lead Institution(s): Canadian Wildlife Service

Project Lead: Grant Gilchrist

Email:

Collaborator(s): Femming Merkey (GINR), Anders Mosbech (NERI)

Location: Nunavut, Greenland

Focal Species: Common Eider (Somateria mollissima), King Eider (Somateria spectabilis)

Project Description: Common and King Eider ducks are heavily hunted in north eastern Canada and west Greenland. In Greenland alone, more than 90 000 eiders are killed annually; a level of harvest that may not be sustainable. Recent evidence suggests that many eiders breeding in arctic Canada migrate to Greenland to winter, but details of their migration and wintering areas are unknown. A key requirement to assess the sustainability of the harvest in Greenland, is to identify affinities between eider breeding populations in both Canada and Greenland and their wintering grounds. In response, an international research team (Greenland, Canada, Denmark) initiated a satellite telemetry study in 2001 to generate information on the wintering affinities of these Common and King eider populations. Transmitters were implanted in Canada and Greenland in 2001, in Greenland only in 2002, and in both Canada and Greenland in 2003.