Quote:
Originally Posted by Smalls
We are talking about a survey here. You are never, repeat, NEVER, going to get 100% participation.
With the number of hunters that think the government is "out to get them" or "spying", you will never get 100% participation. I would be surprised if it ever breaks 50%. Even if you post the link in the easiest place to get to. Even if you manage to get e-mails for all 95k hunters. There will still always be that subset that doesn't want to tell the government anything.
Someone mentioned the people at wal-mart not filling out the HIP correctly. I've known people to say that they will tell them all 0 because they don't want the government to know how many birds they are killing.
So, how do you expect people to ever participate even close to what you apparently want, when people just aren't going to take the time to do it? I mean, 25k received the survey by e-mail, and only 5400 responded. That should tell you right there that e-mailing the survey to all 95k would not solve anything.
I received mine in the mail, and was more than happy to fill it out and return it. If everyone had the desire that you and I have to contribute to the information that LDWF has, then you would see that percentage go up.
But hunter attitudes, in my experience, are to the contrary. They don't want to tell the government anything. So until that mindset is changed, it doesn't matter if you question them at the boat launch, they aren't going to answer.
The end user is the duck hunter. Their opinion may not be the sole basis for the decisions, but it has to be taken into account. If you don't have an end user, you have no profit to sell, and thus you have no money to manage that product. In this case, the hunters buying licenses and shells and all the other goodies associated with hunting is the funding source for management and wildlife agencies. No funding = no wildlife agencies = no management = no ducks.
Personally, I wouldn't be so quick to label anyone as an "everyday idiot". I really don't think that someone is an expert on how a species should be managed just because they've been hunting them for 30 days a year for 10 or 15 or 20 years. I know guys that have hunted ducks religiously for longer than I have, kill the hell out of them, and don't know what the damn limits are for a particular species.
Trust me, I don't want that guy setting the regulations, because he doesn't know anything but killing ducks.
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I agree with your participation theory, but I'm sure LDWF has a target participation level that they feel is achievable and are aiming for it.
As for the everyday idiot theory, I was referring to every single hunter that is not a biologist, including myself. Just because someone is a successful or passionate hunter does not dually qualify them to be a biologist. I'm sure many successful La hunters have never ventured north of Shreveport and have no idea how hatch rates, predator rates, and the million other factors up north have an impact on the waterfowl the other 10 months out the year. They gauge what they want limits on by how many birds they want to kill, not by what is healthy for the overall big picture.
We pay taxes, licenses, and join conservation organizations to help fund the biologist and research, let them do their job.
Like I said make the limit 2 or 10 and I'll be there either way.