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Unlimited
New season
brings limits for duck hunters
By SHANNON TOMPKINS Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Aug. 2, 2009
The ability to identify ducks, by species and sex, on the
wing has always been a crucial waterfowling skill; it
allows hunters to pick their most sought-after species, and, with bag limits
restricting how many of some duck species can be taken each day, avoid
violating the law.
For Texas duck hunters, that hard-earned skill promises to
be particularly important during the first week of this year's waterfowl season . Shooting a “brown duck” without making certain it's
not a mottled duck could prove costly.
Concerned about the status of mottled ducks, a species
native to the Gulf Coast and commonly found on coastal marshes and prairies,
federal waterfowl managers this past week mandated Texas prohibit hunters from
taking mottled ducks during a portion of the 2009-10 duck season.
Part of the regulatory framework package for the 2009-10
waterfowl seasons the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's regulations committee
announced last week requires Texas to reduce its mottled duck harvest by 20
percent from what data say would be expected if waterfowlers
were allowed to take one mottled duck per day for the entire 74-day duck
season.
Some days off-limits
To accomplish that reduction, Texas will have to make
mottled ducks an off-limits species during part of the season.
Because the majority of mottled ducks are taken early in the
season, delaying allowing the take of mottled ducks for the first five days of
the season would reduce overall harvest by the required 20 percent, said Paul
Schmidt, USFWS assistant director for migratory bird management and a member of
the service's regulations committee.
On the other hand, to accomplish a 20 percent reduction by
placing the “off-limits” days at the end of the season, Texas would have to
prohibit mottled duck harvest for the final 30 days of the 74-day duck season,
said Dave Morrison, waterfowl program leader for Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department.
Texas waterfowl managers will recommend putting the
prohibition at the front of the season, making the birds off limits for the
first five or seven days, said Vernon Bevill, who
oversees TPWD's migratory bird programs.
Problem is nothing new
Federal and state waterfowl managers have been concerned
about the mottled ducks' status for more than a decade. Native only to a band
of coastal marsh and prairie from northern Mexico to Florida, mottled ducks
have decreased in population as the bird's habitat has dis-appeared
or been degraded.
Federal and state waterfowl managers are involved in major
efforts to improve methods of monitoring their population, including developing
more reliable ways to estimate and track trends in populations across the
birds' range.
Texas and Louisiana hold the vast majority of mottled ducks
and account for about 90 percent of their annual harvest. Last season, Texas
hunters took about 12,000 mottled ducks and Louisiana hunters almost 67,000,
ac-cording to USFWS data.
Since 1985, Texas has limited hunters to one mottled duck
per day. Louisiana has allowed taking as many as three per day.
The federal frameworks announced last week cut the limit in
the Mississippi Flyway (which includes Louisiana) from a maximum of three per
day to one per day but allows mottled duck harvest for the entire season.
Federal managers' concerns have been exacerbated by the
damage recent hurricanes have caused to vital habitat in the heart of the
species' range, said Schmidt.
“We want to ensure that we have and maintain a sustainable
population,” Schmidt said about the move to reduce harvest of the mottled ducks.
Not all bad news
The issues surrounding mottled ducks were the only
discomforting news for Texas waterfowlers from the
late-season frameworks.
Because of good-to-excellent habitat conditions on northern
nesting grounds and overall strong populations of the 10 most populous duck
species, federal regulators will allow a “liberal” duck season package for
Texas and the rest of the Central Flyway, and a continuation of liberal goose
hunting regulations.
The federal frameworks allow for a six-duck daily bag limit
in Texas, up from the five-duck daily limit under which the state operated the
past three seasons.
Because pintail and canvasback numbers are up, waterfowlers will be allowed to take one of each as part of
their six-duck daily limit — something they haven't been able to do the past
three seasons.
Also, the daily bag limit on wood ducks will go from two per
day to three. The wood duck bag limit has not been that high in more than 70
years.
Eastern Texas will get a 107-day season for snow and Canada
geese, with daily bag limits remaining at 20 “light” (snow, blue Ross) geese
and three Canada geese per day.
For white-fronted geese (speckle-bellies), federal
frameworks allow Texas to choose a 72-day hunting season with a two-bird bag limit
or an 86-day season with a one-specklebelly bag.
The nine-member Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission will
decide the state's 2009-10 duck and goose season dates and bag limits at its
Aug. 27 public meeting in Fort Worth.
PROPOSED SEASON DATES
DUCK
• North Zone: Oct. 31–Nov. 29 and Dec. 12–Jan. 24; youth-only season,
Oct. 24-25.
• South Zone: Oct. 31–Nov. 29 and Dec.12–Jan. 24; youth-only, Oct. 24-25.
• High Plains Mallard Management
Unit: Oct. 24–25 and Oct. 30-Jan.24;
youth-only Oct. 17-18.
• Bag limit: Six per day, with no more than five mallards
(not more than two mallard hens), three wood ducks, two scaup,
two redheads, one pintail, one canvasback and one “dusky' (mottled, black,
Mexican) duck.
GOOSE
• Eastern Zone: Light geese (snow, blue, Ross), Oct. 31-Jan. 24;
White-fronted geese, Oct. 31-Jan. 10; Canada geese, Oct. 31-Jan. 24. Daily bag
limit: 20 light geese, two white-fronted geese, three
Canada geese.
• Western Zone: All geese, Nov. 7-Feb. 7. Daily bag limit: 20 “light”
geese, four Canada geese, one white-fronted goose.
• Light goose conservation zone: Eastern Zone, Feb. 1- March
28; Western Zone: Feb. 8 – March 28.