It's pretty clear that there is no way to make everyone happy. I have shown you over the years how I try to balance the harvest and hunter-opinion information, which I am convinced is the traditional dates in the Coastal Zone. I believe we set those dates and just accept that the calendar is going to shift from earlier to later and back again.
Last year, the calendar was as early as it could be, and public comment convinced the Commission to set the season a week later than my recommendation. This year, the calendar is as late as it can be, and the Commission set the season a week earlier than my recommendation.
The net result is last year we hunted 1 day later than we would have hunted this year had my recommendation stood. And this year we will be hunting 1 day earlier than we would have last year had my recommendation stood. So over the 2-year period, all that was accomplished was 1 earlier day and 1 later day, and BOTH those favoring earlier seasons and those favoring later seasons getting highly pissed-off in alternating years.
So really, it's no big deal. It's worked out as a pretty fair compromise between those that want to hunt earlier and those who want to hunt later over the 2-year period. The only real casualty is the hunter-opinion survey. I've received a maybe 2 dozen e-mails, phone calls, and forum inquiries asking "why participate in the hunter-opinion?"
That is a fair question given the actions of the Commission and Commissioner Courville's explanation, but season dates are only 1 purpose of the hunter-opinion survey, and it was not a component of the 2015 survey. You have seen us use those dates to inform the 2012 changes in zones, make changes in Youth hunt dates in 2 zones, refrain from regulating spinning-wing decoys, modify the pintail harvest strategy to eliminate those seasons-within-seasons, keep Catahoual Lake in the East Zone, evaluate the important components of hunter-satisfaction, and others. The survey is a FAR more valuable and representative tool for collecting objective hunter-opinion data than public meetings, but there is never a guarantee that its results will be binding.
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