Originally Posted by
Rubberhead*
Thanks, great question, and you're asking the right guy.
The answer is because I ran a Monte Carlo simulation using 470 scaup that I could find in historical records that were killed when there was no truncated season. These simulations showed that running the 20 day/2-bird season early (the As-is case) would yield at harvest of 154 scaup where running it late (like other states) would cover only 135 scaup. The optimum would be to run the 20 days starting with the opening of the December season but that creates enforcement and communication issues. Ignoring the "human factor", the early 2-bird season for scaup provides more opportunity than the late season.
The "human" side is also a consideration. The Thanksgiving and early December seasons are the most utilized by South Carolina duck hunters. This is when the "novices" and casual duck hunters are more likely to be afield. These folks are much more likely to make an identification error and kill more than the 1 bird per person limit. So, the belief is that a late scaup season wasn't saving scaup or increasing opportunity - it would just create additional violations. By January, only the more committed folks are duck hunting and they are more likely to be able to identify a scaup and not shoot over the 1-bird limit.
Does this help?
We need to take a poll and change your handle to Duck Statistician or Tuffys Mentor, anything other than RH. LOL In all honesty, given the overall miniscule impact that hunting has on total duck mortality, scaup included, does SC really think the late season restriction to 1 scaup is going to improve the population? I always see larger numbers of divers very late in the season vs. early as I don't think they are photoperiod migrators are they? It seems like it takes severe weather events to move them South.
Do other states factor in human identification error when recommending seasons / limits or just SC? Is SC the only State that prohibits shooting until SUNRISE for early teal season due to human duck misidentification errors? There is no doubt that SC duck hunters are some ground checking fools from all the duck kill pics I see posted every season.
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
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