So what we see with specklebellies is that most of our monitoring data show them to be increasing markedly. Both the mid-winter aerial waterfowl surveys in January each year, and a Lincoln-Peterson index calculated from band-recovery data show that increase. Only the annual aerial survey of fall-staging specklebellies in Saskatchewan shows the population to be constant or maybe slightly decreasing, and we don't know exactly why. However, THAT is the population index that is used in the harvest management plan.
That plan is being re-written by the Central and Mississippi Flyway Technical Committees, and we are making a strong push for the Lincoln-Peterson index as the management metric, which will likely lead to some increase in bag limit. The daily bag limit in the Pacific Flyway is 6 per day.
However ........... Remember what is happening in our state regarding specklebelly numbers:
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