POPULATION-DYNAMICS OF WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS

A significant (P < 0.01) decline between 1961 and 1993 in ratio of har vested young per adult in the Atlantic Flyway (age ratio) of white-win ged scoters (Melanitta fusca) led us to examine annual survival rates and harvest of this species. Compared to waterfowl with similar life h istories, black scoters (M. nigra) and surf scoters (M. perspicillata) , the decline in age ratios of white-winged scoter age ratios was not significantly different (P = 0.11). Adult females banded at Redberry L ake, Saskatchewan that winter along both coasts, had high annual survi val rates (0.73 +/- 0.0176 [SE]). High harvest in the Atlantic Flyway was not followed by an increase in production (age ratios) the followi ng year or 2, i.e., there was no short-term rebound in recruitment by the population. Harvest of white-winged scoters in the Atlantic Flyway was explained by the age ratio in the fall night and by hunter effort .