ADAPTIVE HARVEST

As a keen wildfowler and chairman of one of the wildfowling clubs on The Wash, I always enjoy reading Alasdair Mitchell’s Sharpshooter articles, especially as I know that he chairs BASC’S Wildfowl Liaison Committee. I was very pleased therefore to see him extol the fact that we do not have mandatory bag limits and can shoot under the moon, unlike our American friends in his article in the 10 June issue.

Like many, I am beginning to become uncomfortable with the drip-drip introduction of Adaptive Harvest Management (AHM) by BASC in its literature. AHM is the process undertaken in the US that studies wildfowl populations and sets mandatory bag limits on the basis of the breeding success of each species.

However, unlike in America, British wildfowlers do not control the harvest on the entire flyway, and we have no shooting-friendly statutory parks and wildlife department to undertake the research and police the bag limits set.

With wildfowlers currently bearing the brunt of Natural England’s mismanagement of the consenting process and being at the forefront of the non-toxic shot debate, I am interested to know what Alasdair Mitchell’s view is of AHM and whether he will seek to debate this development fully at the Wildfowl Liaison Committee.

J Harlow, Lincolnshire

Alasdair Mitchell responds:

I must emphasise that I write Sharpshooter from a personal viewpoint, not as a representative of any organisation. The basic principles of AHM have merit. However, there would have to be a good reason for any change in the UK. Moreover, I have concerns about how such a system might be administered here, where public officials tend to gold-plate regulations. Wildfowlers should be treated as customers and custodians, not potential criminals.

AHM has already been raised at the Wildfowl Liaison Committee, with a paper being circulated. We need to keep ourselves informed about this and any other aspects of international regulation that could potentially affect UK wildfowling. We will be discussing AHM further in due course.