Waterfowlers likely stuck with season-in-season

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FYI: Only

Feds shoot down `hunter's choice' duck bag limit proposal NO FREEDOM OF CHOICE

Waterfowlers likely stuck with season-in-season

By SHANNON TOMPKINS
Houston Chronicle

No one -- not duck hunters, not state waterfowl managers, not federal waterfowl managers -- is particularly comfortable with the recent trend toward having seasons-within-a-season for some duck species.

But these regulatory machinations that make certain duck species legal game for only a portion of the longer general duck season appear to be a headache with which waterfowlers and waterfowl managers will have to live.

It's either seasons-within-a-season for some duck species or no season at all.

That seemed the unspoken thrust of comments from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Office of Migratory Bird Management last week.

In the June 9 issue of the Federal Register, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published information on waterfowl hunting regulation proposals offered by the flyway councils and the agency's responses to those proposals.

One of the issues addressed was the Central Flyway Council's proposal to give states the option of a "hunter's choice" bag limit system for the coming season -- an option to the season-within-a-season rules on some species.

Under current waterfowl management protocols, basic duck season length and daily bag limit are determined by a complicated system involving May breeding duck population and wetland estimates, harvest data from the past season, estimates of duck recruitment and other factors.

But a handful (and growing) number of duck species over the past couple of decades have seen their populations fall to levels that require special attention, including reducing hunter harvest of these species below what would be expected if they were legal game for an entire regular duck season.

Currently, pintail and canvasback fit into this category.

Created for a reason
In the past, if a species' population was not high enough to allow season-long harvest, even at one bird per day, the season on that species was closed. Canvasback season was closed several times over the past few decades, and in the 1990s, the big diving duck was the first species to fall under the then-new season-within-a-season rules.

But when pintails took a plunge during the decade-long drought of the late 1980s and early '90s and did not recover as did most other species in the late '90s, managers faced the more daunting prospect of closing the season on one of the most popular species in the waterfowling world.

That's when the season-within-a-season idea took off.

In recent years, pintail and canvasback have been legal game for only 39 days of what has been a 74-day duck season. And hunters have been allowed to include no more than one pintail and one canvasback in their six-duck daily bag limit.

But there are problems with these seasons-within-a-season. Accidental harvest is one.

Many waterfowlers are not good at identifying ducks on the wing, and should they kill a canvasback or pintail during the regular duck season but outside the 39-day open season on the species, the hunter violates the law. If the illegal duck is discarded, the hunter is guilty of wanton waste, another violation of state and federal law.

To address the issue, the Central Flyway Council, of which Texas is a member, this year proposed the "hunter's choice" bag limit as a way of avoiding the problems created by the season-within-a-season rules.

Under the hunter's choice option, the daily bag limit of ducks during seasons under "liberal" or "moderate" general regulations would be five ducks -- down from six ducks currently allowed under the "liberal" and "moderate" rules package.

But instead of having a season-within-a-season for canvasback and pintail and allowing hunters to include one of each of the species in their daily bag limit, the hunter's choice option would, for the entire length of the season (74 days under liberal rules, 60 under moderate regulations), allow Central Flyway waterfowlers to include in their five-duck daily limit no more than one duck from the following group: mallard hen, mottled duck, canvasback, pintail.

Hunter's choice advantages

Advantages of the hunter's choice option include its ability to reward waterfowlers who can identify ducks on the wing (by allowing them to, say, pass on a hen mallard and wait for a more prized pintail or canvasback) but not penalizing those who can't.

By limiting waterfowlers to taking no more than one bird per day from the "restricted" list, harvest could be held down to acceptable levels.

The hunter's option was designed to be a more simple, understandable and practical bag limit option, said Dave Morrison, waterfowl program leader for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's wildlife division and one of the drafters of the hunter's choice proposal.

"It's an option that certainly deserves consideration," Morrison said.

This could be particularly important down the road as more duck species move toward population levels that require cutbacks in hunter harvest.

Mottled ducks wigeon and scaup are the most likely candidates for more conservative harvest regulations in coming years, Morrison noted.

But federal waterfowl managers, known for their conservative approach to waterfowl management, appear unconvinced the hunter's choice option is scientifically sound and workable.

In the June 9 Federal Register, the agency responded to the Central Flyway Council's recommendation to allow the hunter's choice option this season and set up monitoring programs to gauge its impacts.

While the USFWS noted the hunter's choice option "is a concept that warrants further exploration," agency officials decided "it would be premature at this time to modify the regulatory alternatives."

The federal agency left the door open for future consideration of the hunter's choice option, but only after states provide further data on how such a season would impact duck harvest, how such impact would be gauged and how hunter's choice options "fit within larger considerations for multiple-species management."

AT A GLANCE

Under the "hunter's choice" option recommended by the Central Flyway Council, the daily duck bag limit in Texas under "liberal" or "moderate" duck regulation packages would be five ducks to include no more than five mallard drakes, two wood ducks, three scaup, two redhead and no more than one of the following: mallard hen, mottled duck, canvasback and pintail.

Federal waterfowl managers indicated they will not approve use of the hunter's choice option for the coming season but left the door open for future consideration.

[MSDuckmen]

Don't make sence to me at all...

If they had a short season allowing you to kill 1 bird of that species then how in the hell can you drop one duck from the limit and allow a hunter to shoot the same bird once each day the entire season

It is and will aways be a greed issue to the hunters. They need to do what is right and make a limited season on all the birds. I have always liked the 3/30 but would settle for a 4 or 5/45 season.

Just crazy how they will come up with such lame alternatives.

[KSRedleg]

I ain't wanting to peeve anybody off (Waterfowl Biologists, etc), but I ain't never been able to make much sense out of duck seasons/bag limits. Seems to me if you figure a species can't sustain harvest over the entire length of season, you'd just close it and hope for more birds next year.
Seems that if you have fewer birds you'd have a shorter season/smaller bag for that year. Seems that you wouldn't base the season on gadwalls wigeon and teal on the total number of Mallards. Guess I'm simple enough to think that all this should be understandable to a person with average intelligence....
Anybody explain it to me????

[Anatidae]

What's so hard about a season-within-a-season?.......is that just TOO MUCH to keep-up with? If there's any question.....just don't pull the trigger. DUH!!

[RedEyed Duck]

Not too hard for me to figure out, but I did see a few pintails harvested in AR last year that should have been allowed to pass. I think what got confusing to some of the AR hunters is there were "seasons within the season" on both Canvasback and Pintail, however the dates were not the same, so one was open for a few weeks and the other was open a few weeks later.

I will say that I am not against them simply closing the season on Pintail and/or Canvasback for a few more years if that is what the birds need to get the #'s back up! Heck, with Delta trapping, it just might work....