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Tracking eider movements in relation to offshore wind facilities using satellites.

March 17, 2011
Tracking eider movements in relation to offshore wind facilities using satellites.

In order to help understand how marine-wind power development in the northeast may impact common eiders, researchers from Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) teamed with biologists from Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) and U.S. Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (USGS) to capture and track four common eiders with satellite transmitters.

Since 2002, MDIFW and USGS have captured and banded over 11,000 eiders and are using these data to determine survival and harvest rates for Maine’s eider population.  In May, 2010, BRI conducted Maine’s first study of common eiders’ daily movements and migration patterns within proposed offshore wind-power test sites using satellite radio tags implanted in 4 hen eiders captured on their nests on an island in Casco Bay, Maine. 

A summary of this years results indicate:

  • 3 of the 4 eiders remained within a 4-mile radius of the nesting colony between May and October.
  • These 3 eiders migrated 150 miles south to Cape Cod, Massachusetts beginning in October. 
  • The fourth eider flew 70 miles northeast to Penobscot Bay and is currently still wintering there.
  • All four eiders show little movement between daily (foraging) and night (roosting locations. 
  • 1 of the 3 eiders that wintered in Massachusetts returned “home” to Casco Bay on March 13, 2011.

 Key project personnel include:

Lucas Savoy and Wing Goodale, BioDiversity Research Institute (BRI)

Brad Allen and Kelsey Sullivan (MDIFW)

Dan McAuley (USGS)