Unalaska, AK – Researchers from the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward are in Unalaska this week collecting data on Steller's eiders, a species of sea duck that winters in the Aleutian Islands.

The work is part of a joint effort by the Sea Life Center, the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Steller's eiders have been listed as a threatened species for the past ten years.

David Safine, a waterfowl biologist with the Sea Life Center, says that there are only a couple hundred breeding pairs left in the bird's Alaskan population.

"In the last 40 or 50 years, they appear to have declined dramatically," he said. "But because we don't have really good survey data from those times, we don't know the rate of the decline, but there are very few Steller's eiders nesting in Alaska."

Safine gave a talk at the Museum of the Aleutians Wednesday night on the work that he and his colleagues are doing in Unalaska. They're in the middle of their second trip to the area this year to take blood samples and measure the health of the Steller's eiders that winter here.

Although some Steller's eiders breed in northern Alaska, around Barrow, most of the birds that end up in the Aleutians spend the summer in Arctic Russia before molting in places like Izembek Lagoon and Nelson Lagoon on the Alaska Peninsula. For the winters they move further south, to an area ranging from Cook Inlet to the Aleutians.

The waters around Unalaska and Amaknak Islands are home to a number of bird species this time of year, and many of them take on their colorful mating plumage in the early winter. Safine said that's part of why he loves working outside here, even when the Aleutian weather is giving its worst.

"When you're out in the middle of the winter, it might be a cold, wet day, but you've got all these ducks in beautiful colors, and it makes it all worthwhile to be out here."