Long-Tailed Duck Welfare and Offshore Diving

The long-tailed duck is an Arctic sea duck that winters in British coastal waters, diving to extraordinary depths for bivalves and invertebrates, with welfare threatened by gillnet bycatch and offshore development.

Key Facts

Long-tailed ducks can dive to depths of 60m or more, the deepest diving record of any duck
Around 15,000 winter in UK coastal waters, mainly in Scotland and northeast England
Males have long tail streamers in breeding plumage, giving the species its name
They breed across the circumpolar Arctic, with the entire European population wintering in Baltic and North Sea waters
Long-tailed ducks are among the most common bycatch victims in coastal gillnets in Baltic waters

Welfare Considerations

Long-tailed duck welfare is severely threatened by incidental capture in coastal gillnets, particularly in the Baltic Sea where hundreds of thousands of birds drown annually in fishing gear. Offshore wind farm construction displaces wintering birds from established feeding areas. Marine pollution reduces the quality of bivalve prey. The UK wintering population, while significant, represents a small fraction of the overall population and benefits from the absence of large-scale Baltic-style gillnet fisheries.

What You Can Do

Support Baltic Sea fisheries reform to require bycatch mitigation devices in gillnet fisheries
Advocate for marine protected areas covering key long-tailed duck wintering concentrations
Contribute long-tailed duck count records to UKSAS seabird and waterbird surveys
Back comprehensive environmental impact assessment of offshore developments on diving duck populations
Engage with EU and international fisheries policy to address seabird and diving duck bycatch