Ducks in 4 days!

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 483, 27 April 1993, Page 1

Ducks in 4 days!

Last year's wet spring should mean more ducks this season. The game season opens on Saturday - May 5 and by all accounts it will be a good one. Studies in New Zealand have shown a positive correlation between spring rainfall and opening weekend harvest. Harvest of dabbling ducks over the 1992 opening weekend was up 73% on the previous season. This was likely due to the favourable weather conditions during the 1991 breeding season. Last year's spring rainfall was also above average resulting in excellent breeding conditions. Trend counts in January of black swan and paradise revealed good umbers of dabbling ducks. Last year a hunter survey was conducted in the majority of fish and game regions throughout New Zealand. On a birds harvested per hour basic Taranaki hunters were very successful - in fact there were only two regions (West Coast and Central South Island) where hunters were more successful. The majority of effort was expanded on opening weekend with hunters taking an average bag of 6.8 dabbling ducks (mallard, grey, and shoveler) and 2.8 paradise shelduck. The only real change to the 1993 game conditions is the bag limit on Canada goose which has been increased to five in the Waimarino and New Plymouth areas. The increase was made in response to concems of farmers that large numbers of birds were fouling and damaging crops. Last year a number of hunters were apprehended for shooting without a licence. Hunters who do buy a licence are subsidising those who don't, making the licence more expensive. Rangers will again be active throughout the Region over the opening weekend and throughout the season.