The U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of Pipeline Safety (USDOT), has designated
much of the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska that is currently occupied by oil and gas
infrastructure as an Unusually Sensitive Area (USA) for Spectacled Eiders, a threatened species
under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The USA designation affects the USDOT-regulated
pipelines in the region: Badami, Endicott, North Star, Prudhoe Bay NGL, Milne Point, Kuparuk,
Oliktok, and Alpine. Five of these regulated lines are operated by ConocoPhillips Alaska, Inc.
(CPAI) in the Kuparuk River and Colville River units (Figure 1). As part of the Pipeline
Integrity Management Plan, CPAI instituted surveys in 2004 for threatened eiders within a
corridor along the USDOT pipeline between the Alpine facilities on the Colville River Delta and
Central Processing Facility 2 (CPF-2) in the Kuparuk Oilfield; the other USDOT pipelines in the
Kuparuk Oilfield area have been covered by annual aerial surveys for pre-nesting eiders since
1993 (Anderson et al. 2008). CPAI contracted with ABR, Inc., to conduct an aerial survey for
pre-nesting eiders during June 2008 and to conduct ground surveys for nests if any Spectacled
Eiders were seen during the aerial survey, as directed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Spectacled Eider is one of four species of eiders that breed in arctic Alaska (Bellrose
1976). Spectacled, King (S. spectabilis), and Common (S. mollissima) eiders all nest in the
oilfields on Alaska's North Slope (Johnson and Herter 1989). The Spectacled Eider was listed by
the USFWS as a threatened species on 9 June 1993 (58 FR 27474–27480) under the ESA.
Steller's Eiders (Polysticta stelleri) occasionally occur in the oilfields but have not been recorded
as nesting; they breed mainly in western and northwestern Alaska and are uncommon east of
Point Barrow (Johnson and Herter 1989). The Steller's Eider was placed on the threatened list
under the ESA on 11 June 1997 (62 FR 31748–31757). The Spectacled Eider is the focus of
these surveys because Steller’s Eiders are relatively uncommon in the CPAI-operated units.
