Keep survey on target

Shooters urged to return waterfowl figures to set up future seasons

WITH the NT waterfowl hunting season having concluded on January 4, all hunters who held a permit should consider returning the hunting survey attached to the licence.

This survey asks hunters to record the date, location and number of individual birds of each species taken on each day’s hunting.

This analog record is useful for the hunter to evaluate the year’s hunting. I have used mine in the past as the basis for a hunting diary that I keep to help me gauge the season.

I refer to this diary to guide me to where the birds might be in future.

I am surprised something hasn’t been done to add it to the reporting functions of the NT Hunting Mate app.

Many hunters would appreciate this form of reporting in the 21st century.

The incentive to return the survey was revoked a couple of years back when the random prizes for sending in hunting details was discontinued.

Since then, survey numbers have plummeted.

Hunters made the decision not to send in a return when previous data was cherry picked to support a three-bird bag limit and shortened season in 2017.

During this episode authorities quoted the highest ever harvest figure of 110,000 geese, taken during a bumper year in 2011 when the goose population was estimated to be 2.9 million, and then compared that to a population estimate in 2017 of 725,000 geese.

This misuse of statistics didn’t sit well with hunters and they have been dubious of harvest and population statistics ever since.

I suggest all hunters keep this in mind when filling out the return.

I will be sending in my return with zero birds and zero hunts as I did not hunt on public swamps and did my waterfowling under a separate cropprotection permit.

Therefore, I do not want my take to be recorded twice.

My brother will be sending his return in with the same result as he decided not to come up to the NT to hunt the last week of the season with me when COVID-19 hot spots were being declared mid-flight.

These zero results are just as important because they iron out the wrinkles in the extrapolated data.

So please remember: do not exaggerate, do not double dip, and do send them in, especially if you did not hunt.

NT Field and Game has clay target practice every Friday from 4pm. The first 50-target competition will be held today, supported by Northern Tile Gallery, at 8am.

There will be Sunday Mass practice from 9am till noon next Sunday.

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