The biologist called me back yesterday and we had a really good discussion about the biggest problems the Dusky population is facing. By far the most destructive predator on the delta is the Bald Eagles. The Fed’s setup cameras watching Dusky nests and they recorded an 80% egg/gosling mortality rate due to the eagles. He said the pressure on the goslings is reduced when the Hooligan run is strong but if they are late or sparse, the gosling survival rate goes down significantly. He also said that he believes the 4 legged predators are already being controlled as much as possible. They have very liberal seasons for bears, wolves, foxes, coyotes and the like and many residents are actively hunting and trapping them.
I asked him what the options were to reduce the eagle count and he said they approached the Fed’s and they said, “We’re not even going to talk about that…”. The Forest Service tried an interesting experiment where they did an “Egg Taste Aversion” study. They injected goose eggs with some compound that tasted disgusting to the eagles to see if they could trick them into believing goose eggs aren’t good to eat. There was some success, but the delta is just too big to have it work on any sort of reasonable scale.
One thing they did find to increase hatching rates was installing floating fiberglass nest islands. They have vegetation on them and there were significantly higher survival rates noted. The downside is they are expensive and the Musk Rats tend to eat all the vegetation after a year, so the islands have to be replanted requiring a lot of man-hours to install and maintain.
He told me that he recorded 15 Duskies shot by hunters this year and I asked him about the response from local hunters to the implementation of a quota. He said he knew of a couple guys who didn’t hunt geese this year because of the new requirements, but most just tried to target the small number of lessers and other goose species. We didn’t discuss the issue about guilds taking clients out targeting Duskies…
I asked him if he thought hunting played any significant part in the decline of the Dusky population and this is where it got interesting… He was very confident that the number of birds shot in his region and in the NW Goose Permit Zone was so minor that they don’t compare to losses in an area that is not involved with the management of the population. This area is the Vancouver British Columbia Region, Units 1, 5 and 6. He’s concerned about the hunting pressure in this area because there is absolutely no monitoring taking place. The BC fish and wildlife service is not interested in being involved with the Pacific Flyway meetings. He said he even gets calls in Dec and Jan each year with requests for banding information for geese shot with red neck collars. Here is the British Columbia hunting regulations.
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/wildlife...opsis_0910.pdf
Here’s a quick synopsis for Unit 1’s goose season (Vancouver Island): Units 1-1, 1-2, 1-4, 1-5, 1-6, 1-7 are open to goose hunting from Sept 5-13, Oct 10-Nov 22, Dec 19-Jan 10, and Feb 10-Mar 10 with a 5 bird/day bag limit. Units 1-3, 1-8, 1-9, 1-10, 1-11, 1-12, 1-13, 1-14, 1-15 are open from Oct 10 – Jan 22 with a 5 bird/day bag limit. There is no mention of Duskies. Unit’s 5 and 6 are very similar with a 5 bird/day limit and no mention of Duskies.
From talking with the biologist it is painfully clear that we need to get British Columbia involved in the Pacific Flyway Group to reduce hunting pressure on Duskies. The Cordova Advisory Committee is going to submit a letter urging just that and I think the hunters in Oregon need to pressure their counterparts to do the same thing.
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Originally Posted by f350ps
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