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Thread: It' happened again on Monday

  1. #21
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
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    SC
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    4,304

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rubberhead* View Post
    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

  2. #22
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Moncks Corner
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    15,556

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    Keep in mind that migratory waterfowl are an international resource and, unlike quail and deer, managed by Federal law. The federal frameworks define what SC is allowed to do with their duck season. SC's policy makers can make the offering more restrictive than the federal framework, but they can't make it more liberal. In other words, the federal framework for waterfowl hunting in the Atlantic Flyway allows for a maximum of 60 days across the seasons. SC can offer 59 days to waterfowl hunters but they can't offer 61 days.

    Teal first...
    The "teal experiment" was written in the years prior to 1998. The experiment included a 3 year trial period (1998 through 2000) where the DNR's of each of the Southeastern states allowed into the experiment had to run "spy blinds" where they counted attempts (ie, shots) at teal and non-teal species. If the percentage of attempts at non-teal species was greater than a certain threshold, I think 10%, then those states were not going to be allowed the teal season once it transitioned from an experimental season to a regular offering. SC and another state or two failed that test and were not, by the code of federal regulations, going to be allowed a regular teal season offering. A handful of folks got busy including DU. Senator Hollings made some phone calls to the DOI and forced the issue. If you are a SC Teal hunter, you owe the entire season to Sen. Hollings. Sen. Thurmond's office was of no help.

    The compromise that was finally reached was that SC and the other states would only be allowed a teal season if the shooting time got moved from 30 minutes before daylight to official daylight. This is part of the federal framework and SC does not have the option of offering a teal season where shooting starts at 30 minutes before sunrise.

    That's why we can't shoot teal for the first 30 minutes of daylight and it won't change anytime soon. Officially, South Carolina duck hunters are lucky we even had a teal season because we didn't earn it.

    Scaup:
    The Federal framework allows for 60 days of 1 scaup/day for the entire season, and within the general season up to 20 days of 2-scaup/day. Again, it's the federal framework and SC cannot chose to offer even one more day of a 2-scaup limit - 20 days is the max. There are those that, for the sake of simplicity, would just make it 1 scaup/day and leave it at that. Luckily, most of the folks in policy making positions are interested in allowing the maximum amount of opportunity to SC waterfowlers.

    There's no doubt that, in most years, there are more scaup in SC in January than early December. But, there are a lot fewer folks actually hunting in January. This is way actual harvest data shows that most of SC's scaup are killed in early December, so that's when the 2-scaup offering should be. I don't think that harvest statistic is driven as much from the number of bluebill in the state but that the bluebills that are here are much more killable. 1,000 scaup above I95 bridge in January might make us believe that that's when we should be offering 2 scaup, but the truth is that a flock of 6 bluebill flying up a coastal river in November will provide a lot more opportunity to SC duck hunters than the big flock in January that sits out in the middle of Lake Marion.

    Yes, other states take into account the "human" side of waterfowling. NC, for example, always employs a "maximum" Saturday strategy where they set season dates to maximize the number of Saturdays during the season.

    I hope this answers your questions. If not, ask them again but in a different way...
    Ephesians 2 : 8-9



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