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BISMARCK, N.D. - Delta
Waterfowl has expressed strong opposition to a proposal by the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service that would reduce the daily bag limit on scaup from
two birds to one beginning with the coming hunting season.
In a letter to Division of
Migratory Bird Management Chief Robert Blohm, Delta President Rob Olson
wrote, "We believe further reducing the scaup limit is unnecessary and
the wrong decision for scaup and scaup hunters."
Olson says the daily bag limit
for scaup - also called bluebills - was reduced from three birds to two
in 2005, giving the Service only a single year of harvest data under the
current limit. "We strongly believe the Service should not place
additional harvest restrictions on hunters until we better understand
why scaup have declined over the last several years. Right now there is
no data to suggest that hunter harvest is causing the scaup decline."
For more
information on this subject>>
Delta Waterfowl News
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Thousands of
Bluebills Dead since Thursday
Sam Cook
Duluth News
Tribune - 11/06/2007
Dan Markham and Noel Hill of
Duluth were setting up to hunt ducks on Lake Winnibigoshish near Deer
River on Saturday when they noticed a dead bluebill on shore. A quick
walk along the shore turned up another three dozen dead bluebills.
Waterfowl biologists with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
estimate that as many as 3,000 bluebills, also known as lesser scaup,
may have died along the west shore of Lake Winnie.
The die-off began Thursday, said Steve Cordts, DNR waterfowl specialist
in Bemidji. Biologists believe the cause is a microscopic trematode, a
kind of fluke, present in snails that the bluebills are feeding on.
Cordts thinks the die-off could continue. "We're going to find a lot
more dead," he said in a telephone interview Monday.
Cordts and other DNR employees collected about 1,000 dead bluebills from
a stretch of shoreline on Friday. In the time it took to collect about
900 of those birds, another 30 to 50 had died in the same stretch.
"This is potentially pretty bad because of this snail," Cordts said.
"The trematode is likely brand new to the system. It could be along the
whole stretch of the Mississippi River and could get into other lakes
and into other species. It's way too early to speculate a lot."
"We were just heartbroken," Markham said. "It's depressing."
The die-off also has affected coots, Cordts said, although most coots
have already left Lake Winnie. He didn't know how many bluebills
remained on the lake.
The snail that apparently is a host of the trematode is the banded
mystery snail, Cordts said. It was first documented on Lake Winnie eight
years ago by fisheries biologists.
"It's been concentrated on the west side [of the lake]," he said. "Its
numbers have really exploded."
Die-offs of waterfowl due to trematodes have occurred in the spring and
fall since about 2002 on the Mississippi River near Winona, Minn.,
Cordts said, though not in numbers as high as those on Lake Winnie.
DNR officials sent a few ducks to the National Wildlife Health Center in
Madison, Wis., on Thursday. An initial inspection turned up the
trematode identification in one duck, but DNR officials were waiting
Monday for confirmation of that in other samples.
Hunters or others should not eat any duck that appears to be obviously
diseased, Cordts said. Hunters should use latex gloves when cleaning
their ducks.
Cordts said he doesn't know of any other major waterfowl die-offs due to
trematodes other than those near Winona. Controlling the snail that
serves as a host would be "almost impossible," he said.
For More Information On This
Subject
The Duck
Hunters Refuge Forum
Ducks Unlimited Article
Chris Young's Article |
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2004-05 - Nothing has changed
over the last 8 seasons except the waterfowl population. Lake Bistineau
once attracted large numbers of Lesser Scaup and Ringnecks. Simply put,
... those numbers don't exist anymore.
2005-06 - There
was really nothing new this past season except that the Louisiana
Wildlife and Fisheries managed to complete a decent draw-down of the
lake for a change. We didn't hunt as much on Lake Bistineau as in years
past. "Black Jacks" (Scaup and Ringnecks) still made up the majority of
the harvested birds. This season saw more blinds and more hunters than
ever before. 2006-07 -
Once again there really wasn't much different this season from seasons
past. The first split is still the one to hunt and then the birds vacate
during the second split. We hunted Lake Bistineau more this season than
in years past and still didn't increase our harvest totals. One of the
things that really strikes me when you look at this lake is the amount
of duck blinds. There has to be more duck blinds per square mile on this
lake than on any other public lake that I have ever been on. This type
of hunting pressure may be one of the reasons that waterfowl don't
remain for any length of time.
I made several trips
into Arkansas this season and had moderate success during all of these
trips. ( Some were better than others. ) One of the highlights of this
season was the weekend hunt at Cooper Lake, A big thank-you to Tony,
Tip, Selby, and Gus for allowing me to "play" with them at their hunting
camp. It was a great time! |
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The sight was one to make any
duck hunter sad.
A motley collection of decoys was piled behind a barn where my friend
stored his duck hunting paraphernalia. Grass had grown high around them.
The sun had bleached their colors. They were made for water and good
sport, but now they were languishing in the reject heap.
“Those are my leakers,” my buddy explained when I asked him about the
decoys. “Most have shot holes in them. A few have broken seams. When a
decoy starts taking on water, I pull it out of my spread and bring it
home to be patched, but it seems like I just never get around to this
chore. So they just pile up.”
Virtually every hunter has these “low riders” from time to time. Most
duck hunters use hollow-body decoys that are injection-molded from
various thermoplastic resins. These decoys offer natural detail, light
weight and excellent durability. However, they are vulnerable to
puncture holes from misdirected shot or to cracks in seams or decoy
bodies. It doesn’t take long for a small leak to cause a decoy to morph
into a submarine.
For more
information on this subject >>
Ducks Unlimited Website Story |
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Order federal duck stamps
by calling 1-800-782-6724 or
by clicking here and following the directions
to the proper links.
Report Bird Bands
All waterfowl hunters are urged to report bird bands to the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service. Call 1-800-327-BAND (1-800-327-2263). During
the hunting season, operators are on duty 8 am to 4:30 pm EST, Monday
through Friday. You may also report the bands
by clicking here. Band information is used in the management of
waterfowl populations, and assists biologists in providing optimum
hunting opportunities where possible. |
