Clangula hyemalis

Large geographic range and population size; relative immunity of arctic breeding grounds from human intrusion; tendency for non-breeding congregations to be found off-shore.

BREEDING: in North America, from northern coast of Alaska east across Canada to Ellesmere and Baffin Islands and northern Labrador south to southern and central Alaska, northwestern British Columbia, eastern and south-central MacKenzie and Keewatin, and Hudson and James Bays. In Palearctic from Greenland, Iceland, Spitsbergen, and Scandinavia east across Russia to Chukotski Peninsula, Anadyrland, Kamchatka, and the Commander Islands. NON-BREEDING: in North America, mainly on coasts from Aleutians to Washington and from northern Greenland to South Carolina; in the interior, primarily on the Great Lakes (AOU 1983). In winter the highest densities occur along the Aleutian Islands and in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence; other areas of abundance include Lake Michigan, the coast of Maine, Lake Ontario, and south-coastal British Columbia (Root 1988). In the early 1990s, USFWS Winter Sea Duck Survey in eastern North America found the highest densities in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Maine, and Maryland (Kehoe 1994).

No data available.

Potentially vulnerable to oil spills, especially when concentrated in large flocks in non-breeding season. Small numbers killed by hunting or entangelement in fishing nets (Madge and Burns 1988), though potentially less susceptible to harvest than other species (Kehoe 1996). In the Atlantic Flyway, winter habitat has been affected by urbanization and industrialization, but effect on populations is unknown (Kehoe 1994).