For the diver hunters....

[Bait Bucket]

News
Release
June 27, 2008


Harvest Strategy for Scaup Set

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Contacts
Nicholas Throckmorton, 703/358-2235
Joshua Winchell, 703/358-2279

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Service Regulations Committee met yesterday with consultants for the Flyway Councils to begin deliberations on the waterfowl hunting regulations for the upcoming fall season. Among a number of key issues addressed by the Regulations Committee this year was a harvest strategy for scaup.

"Hunters are among the nation's foremost conservationists - they give back far more than they take," said Service Director H. Dale Hall. "As sustainable hunting is the cornerstone of wildlife management, we must prepare to take action to conserve declining scaup populations to ensure we can provide hunting opportunities in future seasons. We are proud to have adopted a strategy to ensure harvest regulations are in concert with the status of scaup populations."

Work on a scaup harvest strategy has been ongoing for 5 years. In 2006 Director H. Dale Hall and the Service Regulations Committee gave the Service and Flyway Councils one additional year to develop a scaup harvest strategy. The strategy was prepared in time to consider for the 2007 season, but an additional year was provided for biologists, administrators and hunters to become familiar with the strategy and to prepare for implementation. The harvest strategy will be used by managers to determine the appropriate bag limits and season lengths in relation to the current population size.

The scaup population has experienced a significant long-term decline. The 2007 population estimate, the most recent data available, was the third lowest on record. Recent population estimates have been more than 30 percent below the 55 year average with the biggest decline occurring over the last 25 years. The Service has expressed concern over the scaup decline for more than a decade and implemented initial harvest restrictions in 1999.

Scaup are diving ducks that breed across a large area ranging from the prairies to the tundra and boreal forest of Alaska and Canada and winter in larger bodies of water such as the Mississippi River, coastal areas, and the Great Lakes.

There is evidence that the long-term scaup decline may be related to changes in scaup habitat. Several different ideas have been proposed to explain the decline, including a change in migration habitat conditions and food availability, effects of contaminants on scaup survival and reproduction and changing conditions on the breeding grounds possibly related to warming trends in portions of northern North America. Hunting has not been implicated as a cause of the past scaup decline, but the Service is committed to ensuring that harvest levels remain commensurate with the ability of the declining population to sustain harvest.

With the adoption of this strategy, the Service will determine the appropriate regulations for scaup in relation to this year's breeding population estimates. Currently, Service biologists are compiling the results from this year's aerial surveys to estimate the current population size. A recommendation for this fall's hunting season length and daily bag limit -- the number of scaup allowed in a day's hunt -- will be made after the next Service Regulations Committee meeting in late July.

Also during yesterday's meeting, state wildlife agencies, the Flyway Councils and the Service agreed on season lengths and bag limits for early season game species such as resident Canada geese and blue-winged teal. The special September blue-winged teal season will not change from last year, with a 16 day season in September for select states in the Mississippi and Central Flyways and a 9 day season in some states in the Atlantic Flyway.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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[lor]

Thanx for posting, I caught wind of this on another forum.
I'm just getting into Divers, I hope the Pacific flyway season is somewhat unchanged, like pintails, there's alot of those birds in the area.

[KingSlew]

Shot a lot of Scaup back in the day. They make great meat pies. Skin, parboil until the flesh falls off the bones, put into a pie shell along with veggies of your choice and bake. Good stuff!

[QH's Paw]

I don't really want them to cut the limit down again this soon but, it seems like in the last 5 years the number of people actually targeting them intentionally has increased substantially. If cutting the limit down helps them stick around for my kids and their kids, I'm for it. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like hunting is what is impacting them the most.
Will changing the limit really help? It doesn't really sound like it at this point.

[redfish89]

I love hunting divers. I'm game for whatever is good in the long run for the scaup.

[steelheadslayer]

You're right QH's Pa, hunting isn't the problem, their food source is. Actually, the Pacific Flyway has very healthy numbers of Scaup, it's the other flyways that are seeing serious declines. Hopefully the brain trust behind these decisions are better schooled than those that make the fisheries decisions.

[Pelagic Captain]

It seems that pacific flyway numbers at least in the columbia river region including the east side have a lot of birds. I have written to the fish and wildlife service and suggested a harvest approach similar to mallards where hens are restricted in the bag. Late in the season on big water there are large flocks of bachelor birds which suggest that a split bag limit would work. mature drake scaup are easily I.D.