LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission agreed Thursday to study ways to reduce the potential for accidents during the so-called pre-dawn “Bayou Meto boat races.”

The racers are duck hunters who dash to favorite hunting spots on the Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area. AGFC has a rule that hunters cannot enter the area before 4 a.m. When that time arrives during hunting season, “it’s a shotgun start for the hunters,” Commissioner Emon Mahony of El Dorado said Thursday, and a number of hunters have expressed concern over the practice and potential mishaps.

Mahony said one possible solution is to create a no-wake zone at the landings “for 200 or 250 yards” to prevent the high-speed takeoffs. Another possibility is to remove the 4 a.m. rule, although this would allow hunters to camp at their hunting holes, preventing others form using them.

Bayou Meto WMA was the first created by the Game and Fish Commission. It was developed in the late 1940s and has a worldwide reputation as a prime duck hunting and waterfowl wintering area.

Also Thursday, the commissioners approved donating two high-mileage pickup trucks to the Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy at East Camden for use in driver training.

The commissioners also recognized 19 enforcement and education personnel who have been active in the Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS) program. This is a support group for families of police officers who die in the line of duty.

AGFC joined the national program’s activities four years ago after the death of Sgt. Monty Carmikle in a helicopter crash.