Over the past couple of days, I've received calls and a letter from some old duck hunters. One, Bert Laing, is a life long hunter who spend his life on the Hauraki Plains and in retirement spends all of his time hunting ducks in season. The other, Rex Murray, is from the same mould, a life long plains hunter. Both wanted to talk about the state of the duck population. Both are convinced that electronic decoys are having a huge impact on the juvenile duck population. Bert mentioned that in both the Whangamarino pond he hunts (~30 birds harvested for the season against a 'normal' season tally of 150) and the Firth of Thames, the observed numbers of ducks were far far below the norm. Rex noted that the majority of birds his team harvested at the opening of the season were adults, and that juveniles were almost absent in their bag. Bert is a lead shot advocate, stating that the use of non toxic shot (he referred to 'steel shot', which is the most common non toxic alternative to lead) leads to injured birds escaping to die slowly elsewhere. Rex had similar views. Both discussed season length, Rex in particular observing that in the month of June, mallards are displaying courtship behaviours and are pairing up, a pre-cursor to mating. Rex also noted that we as a hunting populace, have become far more efficient at harvesting ducks - the semi-automatic shotgun with as many rounds as can be carried now dominates whereas prior to 2004 we had a 2 shot restriction. Motion and electronic decoys are now mandatory items in every decoy spread. The influx of quality camouflage clothing now commonly worn are another balance tipper according to Rex.
Its obvious that as hunters we have to make some sacrifices to preserve our sport. As an organisation, Fish & Game needs to continue to galvanise its activities in the field of understanding of what's happening to the duck population, and even though that program has begun to take flight it will take some time to get meaningful analysis outcomes... In the meantime the biggest gain for Auckland Waikato may be able to be made by adjusting the season length again in our region. If ducks are indeed pairing and mating in June then one part of the overall puzzle should be easy to solve, but we then need to be able to back that up with quality population science to prove a positive impact from making such a move.
Based on the findings of Auckland Waikato's most recent Game Bird Harvest Survey supplementary questions, a larger proportion of those surveyed mentioned that 'seeing game birds' and enjoying the social aspects of hunting were more important to them than simply pulling the trigger. Therefore, you could reasonably expect that these hunters would still purchase a game bird license (if season length were reduced), which while no one is saying it must certainly be one of the biggest concerns in the corridors of power, because any threat to revenue is what keeps CEO's awake at night and reducing the season's length will be viewed by some as reducing opportunity. As such they may choose to not pursue the sport further. A delicate balancing act indeed.
The final word from Rex "You show me anywhere an organisation in the business of producing and harvesting stock kills off 70% of its breeding population..."
Thanks Rex & Bert, great hearing from you both.
No comments:
Post a Comment