Central South Island > Hunting News July 2008

2008 Waterfowl Season Opening Weekend
Mark Webb

Confirmed results of this season’s opening weekend hunter success prove that you should not give too much weight to the first comments you hear. It seems those who go out of their way to let you know how they did are probably disappointed and those who did well are keeping that to themselves. 

This opening weekend rangers spent time in Fairlie and reported poor hunting probably due to the low level of Lake Opuha. These results coupled with those of hunters in the Timaru/Temuka area suggested below average success compared with previous seasons. This was understandable given the dry conditions in the run up to the opening.

In reality our random survey of hunters spread throughout the Region produced an entirely different regional picture. Hunters on the Waitaki River, and in Waimate, Ashburton and coastal South Canterbury did very well. I believe the weather on opening day was truly good for duckshooting and the tendancy of South Canterbury ducks to migrate to Ashburton and Waitaki plains during drought was evident. Overall the average weekend bag, at 18.8 birds per hunter, was the third highest in the 17 years we have been surveying behind the 20.6 birds of 1995 and 19.6 birds of 2003 (Figure 1).
 

Figure 1.  Average opening weekend bag of mallard and grey duck combined and all waterfowl for 1992 to 2008 and average bag for the whole period.

Two hundred and twenty hunters selected at random representing approximately 1 in 10 of all whole season licence holders, were interviewed following the opening. Of hunters interviewed, 11 did not hunt at all and 19 hunted outside of the CSI Region leaving 190 hunters active within our boundaries. On average hunters spent slightly more time (2%) in the field than last year and their success was substantially greater (10%).

Of the 190 interviewed hunters who were active in the CSI Region, 23 took a one day combined duck bag in excess of 25 and six limit bags of 50 birds were recorded. Harvest attributable to these hunters taking more than 25 birds amounted to 13% more than if the bag limit had been 25. There is no evidence our duck population cannot sustain this harvest.

Prior to the opening weekend we were criticised in the media and in person for undertaking a Canada goose cull in the McKenzie country 18 days before the opening of the season. Goose harvest by the average hunter this opening was the highest in the 17 seasons since records have been kept (Figure 2). Geese were taken all over the Region – Ashburton to the Waitaki River along the coast and inland in the Ashburton Lakes and McKenzie country. Almost three-quarters (72%) of geese taken by hunters over the weekend were from the Pukaki/Tekapo area.

 
Figure 2. Opening weekend Canada geese taken per average hunter 1992 to 2008 and average for the period.

The concerns of hunters over the timing of the cull were that the altered behaviour of ducks disturbed by cull operations would make them more gun shy and less likely to fall to hunters, and for the lack of geese present on the opening of the new season.  The opening weekend results in terms of the size of the average bag of waterfowl taken by hunters - the third highest in 17 years, and the contribution of geese to it - the highest in 17 years, suggest those concerns though vehemently expressed were groundless.

Overall harvest by hunters for the weekend within the CSI Region amounted to approximately 37,700 waterfowl of which 31,900 were mallard/grey duck and 3,500 were paradise shelduck.

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