Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 30

Thread: Duck hunter numbers down nationwide

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Location
    Wateree, South Carolina
    Posts
    48,812

    Default Duck hunter numbers down nationwide

    Delta Waterfowl: Duck hunter numbers in decline nationwide
    Lack of access to good hunting grounds key, researcher says
    FROM NEWS REPORTS 17 hours ago

    1 / 1
    According to a Delta Waterfowl study, the number of duck hunters nationally and statewide is in decline.

    Despite booming waterfowl populations in recent years, the number of duck hunters nationwide — and in Louisiana — has been in a steady decline, according to an online report.

    Nola.com reported on a study conducted by Delta Waterfowl, which found only 998,600 hunters pursued ducks in the United States in 2015 — fewer than half of the 2 million who did so in 1970.

    The findings, which were published in Delta’s quarterly magazine in a story titled, ‘Looming Crisis: Falling waterfowl hunter numbers threaten the future of hunting and conservation,’ reports the decline began in the mid-1990s and has dipped almost every year since.

    In Louisiana, the 1989-90 season was the first one when hunters were required to purchase a state duck stamp. That year, without great compliance, the state sold only 64,000 resident duck stamps.

    By the 1999-2000 season, however, 103,000 residents purchased duck stamps in Louisiana to participate in a season with about 45 million ducks on the continent.

    But interest wouldn’t stay that high for long: Louisiana resident duck stamp sales began a steady decline the next year, and have never come close to that 1999-2000 level. By 2016, in fact, only 59,800 residents bought a state duck stamp.

    Lifetime-license sales do play a part in that number, when a hunter pays a chunk of cash and never again has to buy a basic hunting, big-game hunting, muzzleloader, bowhunting or turkey license or WMA hunting permit or duck stamp. By 2013, the most recent year when data is available, 74,000 hunters had purchased lifetime licenses.

    In the study, LSU researcher Luke Laborde said a survey he conducted indicates hunters are abandoning the sport because they don’t have access to good hunting grounds. Laborde sent a survey to hunters in 13 states in the Mississippi Flyway, and 1,500 responded, telling the researcher how they made their decisions on whether to hunt in a particular season.

    "My key research conclusions include that access to uncrowded areas and private lands promotes long-term participation in waterfowl hunting," Laborde told Delta Waterfowl.

    And since adult hunters don't have access to productive hunting, their kids don’t go on hunting trips, which leads to recruitment issues, according to John Devney, vice president of U.S. policy for Delta Waterfowl.

    "If we want waterfowl hunter numbers to grow or remain stable, we need recruitment to keep pace with the losses," he said. "To recruit new hunters, we need to foster a social structure and peer support that allows a kid to stay in the game.

    "We tell folks to support conservation -- to replace the ducks they shoot every year. We should also be telling them that you must replace yourself as a duck hunter. That's as big a part of the job as buying a federal duck stamp."

    Devney is particularly concerned because hunters are in decline despite fantastic duck numbers. For more than 20 years, hunters have enjoyed more liberal season lengths and bag limits, so a generation of hunters has no idea what it’s like to hunt when regulations are more restrictive.

    "And we're still losing hunters," Devney said. "What happens when the prairies dry out and we have shorter duck seasons? It scares me to death. Mallards are doing well, but duck hunters are doing terribly."

    http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=10722

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Posts
    544

    Default

    This does not seem to be the case for public waters of SC

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Florence, SC
    Posts
    2,602

    Default

    The Duck Dynasty bubble has burst.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Blythewood
    Posts
    16,975

    Default

    "Freedom Isn't Free"
    _Spc. Thomas Caughman
    1983-2004

    Quote Originally Posted by Dook View Post
    Go tigers!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Spartanburg
    Posts
    1,690

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by youngjedi View Post
    This does not seem to be the case for public waters of SC
    this seems to be correct

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Posts
    2,566

    Default

    SC is always a couple years behind the national trends

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    SC
    Posts
    4,399

    Default

    Now if we could just figure out a way to make them quit turkey hunting also.
    "My resume is the trail of destruction behind me. " Bucky Katt

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    SW Louisiana / Edisto Beach
    Posts
    1,284

    Default

    All the trend followers all moved on the crossfit
    "The best things in life make you sweaty"
    - Edgar Allen Poe

    “We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us...”
    ― Henry David Thoreau

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    11

    Default

    NODak and AR sure seem to get more and more attention year after year the ramps, woods, firlwda, and motels get more full! You Betcha

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Scumter
    Posts
    21,811

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by JABIII View Post
    In the study, LSU researcher Luke Laborde said a survey he conducted indicates hunters are abandoning the sport because they don’t have access to good hunting grounds.
    It ain't hard to figure out.

    This is my mindset on the argument we've seen in other threads where it is believed that corn ponds are gonna save duck hunting in SC. Even if that theory were true, the only people who would real the benefit are the ones who can afford to have land in a prime area and create a pond, or pay for a lease on one. Neither of which is cheap and are pretty much out of the reach of many laymen. Public grounds are getting more and more crowded. Especially in my neck of the woods those areas are lacking the essential food to attract and keep ducks. What few areas DO still attract a few birds are common knowledge and result in unbearable crowds, discouraging people from hunting there. The birds quickly react to this pressure and find other areas to use that hunters can't access, i.e. Refuge, residential-heavy areas off limits to hunting, private waters hunted once weekly.



    Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
    Last edited by willyworm; 04-30-2017 at 08:45 PM.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    Delta in a nutshell: Breeding grounds + small wetlands + big blocks of grass cover + predator removal + nesting structures + enough money to do the job= plenty of ducks to keep everyone smiling!

    "For those that will fight for it...FREEDOM...has a flavor the protected shall never know."
    -L/Cpl Edwin L. "Tim" Craft

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Sumter, South Carolina
    Posts
    1,686

    Default

    195x 196x 197x 198x 199x 200x 201x

    FLYWAY TOTALS 1,865,957 1,325,696 1,809,082 1,339,442 1,205,532 1,054,516 953,280

    South Carolina 12,309 12,346 18,357 16,629 17,917 18,729 19,620

    Actually, SC IS one of the few places in which that decline is not obvious.


  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    SC
    Posts
    4,304

    Default

    Duck hunter numbers decline "nationwide". If this determination was taken from HIP data (Harvest Information Program) I would conclude that it is very, very flawed.
    Listen to your elders. Not because they are always right but because they have more experiences of being wrong.

    "We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give" Sir Winston Churchill

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Sumter, South Carolina
    Posts
    1,686

    Default

    Think it is just misleading. LA and AR both have not seen real declines, but that is probably because of OOS hunters in both. Most states have declined, but Harvest and Avg/Hunter numbers have not; they have increased just about everywhere except the Northeast. Thus, that would not be the perception on the ground/water in places like LA, AR, NC, and SC and it's not a lowered impact on the birds. It probably is a social fact that needs to be addressed by those interested in hunting, though. Northern states have lost a lot of hunters and I guess the number of locals in LA and AR may have declined.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    SC
    Posts
    4,304

    Default

    I'm curious to know how many duck hunters have shifted their duck hunting to other states or Canada. I went a couple years where I didn't even buy a SC duck stamp but hunted out of state. I'm guessing I could have been considered in the declining number here that year or two.

    Is harvest and average / hunter taken from HIP data as well or separate random survey samples? Some folks lie on both surveys, not just the folks that kill nothing and lie like they are bird slayers. I know fellas that kill 100's of ducks and put "1" down for their annual harvest of ducks. (Cajun's ain't real keen on government surveys)
    Listen to your elders. Not because they are always right but because they have more experiences of being wrong.

    "We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give" Sir Winston Churchill

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    FROG LEVEL
    Posts
    23,785

    Default

    Great Question Paul.
    Gettin old is for pussies! AND MY NEW TRUE people say like Capt. Tom >>>>>>>>>/
    "Wow, often imitated but never duplicated. No one can do it like the master. My hat is off to you DRDUCK!"

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Posts
    1,046

    Default

    Is this decline in actual duck hunters? Does this decline include duck shooters or sky busters? I do think there is a difference in the different types of people out there. Just sayin

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Posts
    24,581

    Default

    Here we go again with the data and bar graphs
    You've got one life. Blaze on!

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Sumter, South Carolina
    Posts
    1,686

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by GobblerHntr View Post
    Here we go again with the data and bar graphs
    Don't be so hard on yourself. Lots of kids have trouble understanding complex concepts. Your brain is still developing and there is still hope. Just be careful with that smoke and drink. Both can slow or retard that process. Don't beat your head on the wall and be frustrated.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Greenwood
    Posts
    1,996

    Default

    Call me crazy but I actually think this decrease in hunter numbers is a bad thing... show an overall trend in NA that hunting in general is becoming less popular. Lower numbers = smaller voice = potential for anti-hunting groups to change things
    "A duck call in the hands of the unskilled is conservation's greatest asset."-Nash Buckingham

    "The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Sumter, South Carolina
    Posts
    1,686

    Default

    Exactly. That would be the problem with it. Lower participation equals lower public acceptance. Regardless of the number details, it does seem to be declining in most places, which shouldn't be much of a surprise today. Hunting tourism keeps the numbers up in some places as does ingrained tradition in a few places like SC/NC/GA. It's been going down everywhere else for quite a while. How much? There, the answer is open to question.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •