Zones vs splits
In a state with very different large-scale habitat types, like NE vs SW Louisiana, zones are always a better choice than splits. There is no need for hunters in NE LA to have early hunting days to satisfy the guys in SW LA, AND there is no need for SW LA to have later days, when they have such good success earlier in the season, to satisfy the hunters in NE LA.
On a small scale, splits may seem better, and with 60-day seasons it doesn't make a lot of difference. But zones are a better choice, especially when season length is reduced, as Tucan pointed out.
Lastly, frameworks are not likely to be set later anytime soon. The wintering grounds serve a need for the migratory waterfowl resource beyond providing opportunity to shoot them. The shooting has to stop sometime so birds can survive, regain body weight, start pre-basic molt, and prepare for the migration north. Paired birds do that more effectively, and there is a cost of losing a mate late in winter. We also know from radio-telemetry studies that after mid-January, nothing kills a duck except hunters. Not predators, not starvation, not collisions with wires like earlier in the season. So hunting mortality after mid-January is shooting into the breeding stock; it is not compensatory mortality.
Southern hunters have been complaining that the season closes too early for decades, maybe longer. My first exposure was in the classic 1964 book, "Waterfowl Tomorrow" where starting on page 683 "A Letter to a Hunter" details the regular complaint. And in those days, the season closed closer to the first Sunday in January rather than the last.
Know that the proposed season dates for 2016-17 were presented at the January Commission meeting (I saw someone posted a link), and you have the opportunity to comment until the April Commission meeting when they will be finalized. Changes can be made at the February and March meetings before the final approval in April.
|