[noodle creek]

Originally Posted by Duck Butter

1. HIP is not where the harvest numbers come from

2. The questions from the HIP survey put people into categories of how many waterfowl they kill

3. Harvest numbers come from people that are selected from the above process and then send in wings from all the ducks they harvest that year. Biologists identify the ducks by the wings and then extrapolate harvest data based on that. There is a multiplier used (its the same year in and year out so there is less bias)

4. Aerial counts are not an exact count. They extrapolate numbers on the transects and there is a multiplier used (its the same year in and year out so there is less bias)

5. Reason why mulitpliers are used is because there is no way to know how many ducks/deer/squirrels/turkeys/rabbits are killed. You take a subset of hunters and extrapolate from there. Most people don't like telling the truth about how many things they kill and that is a reason our deer tagging system is a disaster

6. If anyone has a way of getting an exact count of fish/deer/turkeys/squirrel harvest, please please speak up

7. I like lamp

Thanks for a real answer