Thread: Waikato News

Originally Posted by Tim Allen

I am really surprised at how many people feel put out by the decisions of A/W F&G council. We accept that the population is in severe decline yet we don't want to do anything about it. Should we keep plundering an ailing resource pretending there is not a problem?

I think A/W have been brave in making a couple of big calls that "may" help the resource. From my perspective steel shot and the allowance of unpinned auto's has had a dramatic effect on the population, together they are a burden on our resource in the hands of most hunters.

Tim I think the issue here is that many hunters feel that the A/W changes for this season are really just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, and will have little if any affect on the duck population in the region.
The nub of the issue remains that over the past 20 years A/W has done a very poor job of understanding the resource which it manages - in reality there has been no research.
In addition A/W has not properly communicated with licence holders, and has resorted to some "orchestrated" hunting survey feedback and local club remits to provide support for its position.
Until recently I have never heard any suggestion that the duck population in A/W was at a critical level or that hunting harvest was having a significant impact. Even now this information is not coming from the Council.

It seems clear that hunting harvests have declined over the last 15 years in particular - the same time period in which we have had unpinned semi autos; robo duck decoys and increased pond feeding. Obvioulsy these new tools cannot have not been the cause of the duck population decline. What confidence can hunters have then that the changes this season will have any positive impact on the population - it may be that the horse has already bolted!

From my perspective the frustration being expressed is not a lack of support for changes which could positively impact on the duck pop, its more another vote of no confidence in the small cabal of councillors who have been on the A/W Council for 20 odd years and have presided over the decline in the duck population.
IMHO the changes for the 2013 season will result in a significant decline in licence sales which will have long term financial consequences for F&G management.