Duck hunting enters a new phase

After a couple of years of uncertainty, duck hunting in south-east Australia is entering a new phase and as I write this column, hunters are keenly waiting to hear what type of seasons will be declared in Victoria and South Australia. With two reviews into gamebird hunting complete in the past two years and the outcomes of those causing an increased regulatory environment, we still have something to look forward to and can still enjoy our age-old traditions many thought had gone.

In Victoria, this year brings a new dawn in how seasons are set as they’ve now moved to Adaptive Harvest Management (AHM), where science dictates how the season is determined. No more of the old garbage where opposing groups tabled submissions where one side would be saying full season and the other the opposite. Bag limits and season length would be the result of a mixture of negotiation, ideology and political interference that just didn’t follow the science, a less than ideal way to determine limits for a sustainable harvest.

Instead of relying on imperfect data and indexes to suggest duck numbers, Victoria now has in place a robust method to determine total game duck abundance. Using both aerial and ground surveys designed specifically for the job along with surface water figures, they now can estimate the total number of game ducks in Victoria (these surveys will be conducted at the same time in coming years). Once statistical analysis has been completed, a proportional harvest level will be applied to calculate a seasonal harvest quota. This level has previously been calculated to be around 20 per cent to ensure a sustainable harvest in any given year.

Bag limits will be calculated using modelling to achieve the seasonal harvest quota with inputs such as the number of licenced hunters, total seasonal harvest, season length and bag limit data. The Game Management Authority will then recommend daily bag limits to the Government, which will make a final decision and announce season arrangements. With this science-based approach, the decision-making process should be clear of past political interference and be transparent.

The South Australian situation is still open to interference as it’s not at the same level of AHM sophistication as Victoria. Such interference in the process is highlighted by the behaviour of the current Minister delaying a season declaration. With relevant paperwork provided to the Minister’s office before Christmas, I’m writing this in mid-January and finally the season has been gazetted (previous Ministers had the appropriate paperwork returned and a declaration made by Christmas). This certainly seems like a delaying tactic by the Minister, and is the petulant reaction of someonewho didn’t get their way after the game bird review they initiated didn’t give the result they wanted (a ban)?

To create some transparency into the process of setting bag limits, I developed a bag calculator spreadsheet. It used a point weighting system attached to various criteria which have been used in the past nine years to determine a bag recommendation. Hunting organisations agreed to trial the calculator and we were extremely interested to find out if the limit recommended by the government aligned with my bag calculator which came in at eight ducks.

Statistical analysis during calculator testing resulted in bag limits no different to what has been recommended by the government in the past. Any deviation from the number produced by the calculator this year should raise questions regarding unbiased decision making or political interference.

With the declaration of a six-duck bag coupled with season length and species restrictions, this does smell foul and certainly not reflective of the data. With hunters having a fixed seasonal effort there’s no need to shorten seasons, while probability assessment shows there’s also no need to restrict species which are harvested in lower numbers.