By JOE MACALUSO
Anybody got a napkin?
Anybody?
Please!
There's egg on my face and I need something to remove it.
Last week's call of a 45-day duck season was premature.
Sorry about that: From the information presented by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the information the USFWS has in its Web site about the Adaptive Harvest Management Plan, the number sure did look like a 45-day season to me, and to a few others in the media, too.
Then early last week, state waterfowl biologists in the 13-state Mississippi Flyway learned the USFWS was adding 600,000 mallards estimated in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. These ducks are not counted in the annual Mid-Continent Survey conducted in May.
In past years, all anybody heard about when it came to setting the length of and bag limits for the duck season were the numbers of mallards in the May Breeding Count Survey and the number of ponds on the breeding groups. These counts came in the Mid-Continent area, a section that includes eastern Montana, the Dakotas, Canadian prairielands in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba provinces, northern Canadian woodlands and areas in Alaska.
That number came in at 6.755 million in the May count. Add in the 5-million-plus ponds and the chart showed a 45-day season, a "moderate" season according to USFWS.
Add in the heretofore uncounted 600,000 and the mallard number shoots to 7.355 million mallards. With pond numbers up nearly 40 percent from last year, the chart shifts to an "L" -- Liberal -- 60-day season.
So, that's what we Louisiana hunters are going to get, a 60-day season, or it sure looks like we're going to get that lengthy opportunity for the seventh consecutive year.
State Wildlife and Fisheries biologist Robert Helm said there were other interesting developments the USFWS sent along to the representatives of the 13 Mississippi Flyway states meeting in Tunica, Miss., last week.
n There will be a 14-day reduction in the specklebelly goose season. Hunters will have a 72-day season, down from the 86 days they've had the last five years.
n Though the Mississippi Flyway group won't advocate it, the USFWS is calling for a 25- percent reduction in the take of scaup, the diving duck folks around here call "dos gris."
The May survey shows scaup numbers continue on a sharp decline.
And with pintail number up this year, it looks like hunters will be able to take one pintail per day throughout the 60-day season.
For the last three years, hunters were restricted to a 30-day, one-per-day pintail season within the 60-day framework.
All those facts ran in Saturday's sports page.
So, that doesn't leave much room for debate when the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission meets Aug. 4 to set the state's duck-hunting seasons. The 60-day season allows the LWFC to open the East and West zones two splits each on a Saturday and close on a Sunday.
What will come up for debate is that some among the seven-man commission want to consider a one-mallard hen daily take among the six-ducks limit allowed in a 60-day season. The USFWS allows hunters to take two mallard hens. Most of this will be terrific news when the State Ducks Unlimited Convention is held next weekend in New Orleans.
