doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Lowering limit on mallards in Atlantic Flyway

Tamid, I appreciate your mentioning ethics. There seems a big difference between hunters and anglers concerning sustainability and sportsmanship. I've been involved in both as advocate for a stronger ethic for waterfowl and the noble Atlantic salmon.

A couple years ago I addressed American donors to the Atlantic Salmon Federation in Washington on keeping salmon around as long as possible. The fish are doomed, endangered now, facing extirpation and extinction while catch-and-release result in estimated four- to six-per cent mortality.

Twenty-five years ago, I presided, in a sense, over destruction of one of the world's greatest fisheries for cod off Canada's East Cast, as executive director of the Fishing Masters Association representing East Coast deep-water trawler captains. They told me all fishermen steal; it was close to truth.

A lot of factors relate to "management" other than human pressure. I believe a stronger ethic of sustainability and sportsmanship should be part of it. There are so many brook trout here the daily limit is 10, year-round. Taking limits because we can is unreasonable to a growing constituency here.

The day, a dog attending preferably, should be enough, a modest bag a premium.

That's really surprising, considering the limit is 7 mallards here in WA, with no more then two hens. Breeding conditions and weather patterns must really be different up north in the Atlantic Flyway. Hope it turns around.

Part of the reason you get a 108 day season and 8 birds/day is that there are no people north of California, and they essentially can't hunt them south of you.

Your birds are coming all the way from the Aleutian chain in many cases.

The Pacific flyway has it's own set of problems.
The water issues on the west coast are very complicated.
But essentially, no water, no waterfowl.

I'm surprised more people here don't read the waterfowling magazines.

For the central flyway, I notice the first good hard freeze in the potholes. Birds might finally start to concentrate some and move down. Maybe.

They blew out of here a week ago

I guess we are fortunate that we have you to keep us enlightened.

SRH

Stan, it has been quite a surprise to me that on this site, where people are so passionate about double guns, and clearly love their waterfowling, the participants on this thread have shown no knowledge of the management system that makes their waterfowling possible.

If a flyway council ordered the reduction in Mallard harvest to 2 birds /day, that is evidence of a catastrophic situation.

It's not a grand conspiracy promulgated by entrenched bureaucrats to deny sportsmen their pleasure.

Something has gone wrong in the Atlantic flyway, and the bag reductions are essentially a last ditch (short of outright closure)effort to save the resource.

It's not the misunderstanding of some about the reduction of the limit that surprises me. It is your condescension in assuming that " the participants on this thread have shown no knowledge of the management system that makes their waterfowling possible." Your words.

Just because the participants who post here don't parrot what they might read in magazines you have no right to assume that they (we) don't read them, or other sources of current waterfowl information as well. There are many people who read here and almost never post. You're lumping everyone into the same pie.

And, it's even more telling that you have to have this pointed out to you. It is condescension at it's worst.

SRH

If you have a chance to read the link to the survey, the sky may not be falling.

Stable counts in the breeding grounds, and larger decrease in harvest than counts. If they aren't denying the sportsmen, who're apparently self regulating, who's ego gets satisfied by penalizing prior to establishing a reason for the penalty?

Are you sure that is a management system that is making waterfowling possible?

Don't confuse him with the facts, craig.

SRH