The Mysterious Decline of Scaup

OAK HAMMOCK MARSH, September 22, 1999-Scaup once numbered among the most common waterfowl species. But in the past 20 years, their numbers have declined and scientists don't know why.

Often called bluebills, the scaup population is currently estimated at approximately four million birds, down from 7.5 million in the 1970s and still well below the 45-year average.

DUC's research arm, the Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research, is planning to invest $2 million in a five-year research program to study the birds, their population trends and ecological changes that have occurred in the habitats where scaup breed and overwinter. Biologists are concerned that the decline in scaup may be an indicator of large-scale changes in North America's environment.