2006 Waterfowl Season Harvest Report Available

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently issued a new report summarizing hunter activity and harvest for the 2006 waterfowl season. The reports shows more than 13.8 million ducks were harvested, up more than a million ducks from the previous season. Hunters also harvested nearly 3.6 million geese, down slightly the previous season. The Service generates the estimates contained in the report based on hunting diary surveys of selected waterfowl hunters, through the cooperative State-Federal Harvest Information Program and the Waterfowl Parts Collection Survey. These surveys provide critically important information used by state wildlife agencies and the Service to establish the next hunting season and maintain healthy waterfowl populations. Nationally, duck hunters spent about8 million days in the field, compared with5 million days of duck hunting the previous season. Hunters spent more than 4 million days hunting geese which is similar to the previous season. Mallards were the most prevalent duck in the bag for hunters in the United States, with nearly 4.7 million birds harvested last season. Other species popular among waterfowlers were green winged teal with nearly 1.7 million birds harvested; gadwall with more than 1.5 million harvested; wood duck, at more than 1 million harvested; and blue winged teal, with more than 940,000 harvested. Canada geese were the most prevalent goose in the bag by hunters in the United States, with more than 2.6 million birds harvested last season. A flyway-by-flyway summary shows: In the Mississippi Flyway, the nearly3 million ducks harvested was an increase from the nearly 5.3 million harvested in the previous season. The more than 1.4 million geese harvested was up from nearly 1.3 million the previous season. In the Atlantic Flyway, more than 1.6 million ducks were harvested last season, similar to the previous season. The 714,000 geese harvested was down from 841,000 from the prior season. In the Central Flyway, hunters bagged nearly 2.5 million ducks last season. This is down from more than 2.7 million in the previous season. The harvest of 941,000 geese was down from more than a million the previous season. In the Pacific Flyway, hunters harvested a total of more than 3.4 million ducks, up from 2.8 million in the previous season. The number of geese harvested, more than 471,000, was up from nearly 446,000 the season before. In Alaska, more than 65,000 ducks were harvested, down from nearly 75,000 in the previous season. The goose harvest at 7,500 was up from 5,500 in the previous year. The waterfowl hunter activity and harvest estimates for the 2006 hunting season are available on the Services web site at http://migratorybirds.fws.gov/reports/reports.html. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 97-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 547 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resources offices and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign and Native American tribal governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies. -FWS-