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.