A 1974 subsistence survey carried out jointly by the University of Alaska and the Bristol Bay Native Corporation showed that, in 20 Bristol Bay villages, 57% of the households harvested waterfowl. The average kill was 32 birds per household.
Eider ducks are the most important marine birds taken by residents of Barrow, Alaska. Johnson (1971) interviewed 31 adult hunters with average kills of 88 birds per hunter. Barrow people also take substantial numbers of geese at Atkasook, a summer camp on the Meade River 80 miles southeast of Barrow.
Point Hope, Alaska, villagers also favor eider ducks above all others. Pederson (1971) indicated that each household that hunted took about 150 eiders in the summer of 1971. Each summer, Point Hope and Kivalina residents travel to the Cape Thompson and Cape Lisburne cliffs to gather murre eggs. Both Pederson (1971) and Kessel and Saario (1966) showed an average harvest of 5 to 10 dozen eggs per household (equivalent in weight to 10 to 20 dozen chicken eggs).
To our knowledge, there is no available evidence to indicate that the number of migratory birds taken in the North in spring and fall is a significant factor in the survival of a particular species. The birds are, however, a significant factor in the economy and culture of the people of the Mackenzie Delta region and much of coastal Alaska. This may not always be true, for their social and economic conditions are changing rapidly.
With the native birthrate twice the national average and with hunting technology improving yearly, the day will undoubtedly come when marine birds and other wildlife resources are not able to withstand intensified harvest pressures without more regulation and control. An obvious need exists for government conservation agencies to work more closely with the native people of northern regions in conservation education and development of sound harvest regulations.
Recreational Uses
No attempt was made in this evaluation to affix dollar values to every marine bird enjoyed by recreationists. Goldstein (1971), in his economic study of wetlands, found it impossible to fix the value of the production and harvest of migratory waterfowl in Minnesota.
The amount of money spent by recreationists in seeking enjoyment from marine birds does not measure the values they derive; it measures only their costs to participate in such ventures. The analogy that could be made is that the value of a diamond is equal to the cost of mining it. Nevertheless, expenditure data for services and goods provided by air-taxi and charter boat operators and merchants selling bird guides, binoculars, and other outdoor recreational equipment are useful indicators in establishing the secondary or indirect benefits of recreational activities associated with marine birds.
The normal economic concept of net benefits from marine bird recreation would include only those accruing to individuals who provide goods and services to the recreationists, gross revenues minus the costs (Wollman 1962; Pearse and Bowden 1969). This economic return, however, in no way measures direct benefits of marine bird resources to the recreationists.
Another important consideration in evaluating recreational use of marine birds is to recognize that many of the nonparticipants either value the option of being able to take advantage of them in the future, or simply believe that the availability of such resources benefits society (Stegner 1968). Such benefits are difficult, if not impossible, to quantify yet may be exceedingly important due to the uniqueness of the marine bird resource and because many decisions affecting it may prove irreversible.