Where Have All the Eiders Gone? - Food Resource Availability Assessment
To apply for this opportunity you must submit your quotation meeting the requirements detailed in the Request for Quotation (RFQ) attached. Your response must be sent to daniel.donald@naturalengland.org.uk (cc catherine.scott@naturalengland.co.uk and jayden.endean@naturalengland.org.uk) by 17:00 on 04/11/2025. If you have any clarification questions linked to this opportunity or the procurement process please submit these via email to daniel.donald@naturalengland.org.uk. Please note that, unless commercially sensitive, both the question and the response will be circulated to all tenderers.
The submission route named on the official notice.
This sits below the typical range for Engineering & Architecture contracts — a smaller, more accessible award. Based on 33,646 valued Engineering & Architecture tenders in our corpus.
At the GB scale, eider numbers have declined by c60% over the last 25 years.
At an England scale, numbers have declined by c75% over 30+ years.
Action to understand the causes of these declines and, if possible, to implement measures to halt or reverse the declines is urgent.
Adult eiders preferentially feed on mussel, a resource which since 2012 has declined critically in Northumberland.
This suggests that environmental changes leading to loss of mussel resources on this coast may have played some part in the eiders' decline.
The present study is being commissioned to provide an assessment of food availability for eiders over the winter period.
Eiders preferentially feed on mussels, a resource which since 2012 has declined critically in Northumberland.
However, mussel beds persist in the Teesmouth and Cleveland Coast SPA, where wintering eiders occur.
The study will determine the availability of mussels and alternate food sources at five sites in the region used by eiders.
Intertidal rocky reef transect surveys will be conducted during the period of lowest possible tides in November or December (contingency) 2025.
The period is chosen to assess the food availability to the overwintering eiders in the region.
If interested, suppliers should provide: details of the methodology and approaches proposed to deliver the requirements of this project; qualifications and experience the proposed project team; a proposed timetable for the project, risk log, mitigation actions and a Gantt; and proposed project teams' experience and qualifications for operating safely in the environment and conditions required for the project.
What the supplier must deliver
Action to understand the causes of these
Action to understand the causes of these declines and, if possible, to implement measures to halt or reverse the declines is urgent.
The present study is being commissioned
The present study is being commissioned to provide an assessment of food availability for eiders over the winter period.
Derived from the notice text — always confirm against the original documents.
Make the case to bid
Reveal who to approach at Natural England, and generate a go-to-market strategy from their news, accounts and people.
The full intelligence dossier
Our agent reads Natural England’s accounts, hunts live signals, finds the people who decide — and hands you a bid strategy plus a go-to-market influence plan, including what your team should post this week. You approve every paid step.
Ask me about this tender, the buyer, who wins their work, or whether you should bid.
- OCID
- ocds-h6vhtk-05d2c4
- Stage
- tender · Open
- Source
- Find a Tender
- Buyer ref
- 067933-2025
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source data © Crown copyright.
Who wins this kind of work
The suppliers and buyers around this opportunity — drawn from official award data. Drag to orbit; click a node to explore.
Top suppliers & buyers in Engineering & Architecture
Natural England’s tender network
Assembling the network…