Outdoor Notes : Breeding Duck Population Falls to Record Low

The estimated number of breeding ducks in North America this year is the lowest ever recorded during 31 years of surveys, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The decline, blamed in part on continuing drought conditions in parts of Canada’s prairie provinces, occurred in 9 of 10 species most important to waterfowl hunters. Mallard breeding populations reached an all-time low of 5.5 million, while northern pintail populations fell below three million for the first time in 31 years. Shoveler, gadwall, scaup, canvasback, redhead and wigeon also showed marked declines.

The low nesting populations come when many wetland areas that were dried by drought in recent years, have been helped by a larger than average spring rainfall during this year. However, the USF&WS; said, agricultural practices in Canada and the upper midwestern United States are harming waterfowl nesting habitat. When wetlands are dry because of drought, farmers are more likely to convert them to cultivation, the USF&WS; said. Intensive farming, including draining, burning, clearing, grazing, cultivating and filling have had a significant impact on wetlands in key duck breeding areas in Canada.

The USF&WS; is considering greatly reduced bag limits on U.S. waterfowl hunters this season. Final decisions will be made after brood count surveys are available.

Thirty-nine desert bighorn sheep were captured in nets on the south shores of Lake Mead recently and transplanted to historic bighorn habitat in northern Arizona.

In a multi-agency project, the bighorns were lured to a drop net site with bait--apple pulp and alfalfa. The bighorns were fitted with color-coded ear tags, examined by veterinarians, moved to Callville Bay Marina on boats and then loaded into trucks for the move to their new home, a mountainous region of northern Arizona.

It happened recently off the coast of Georgia: Two fishermen in an 18-foot boat were fishing for spotted seatrout when one of them hooked into one. About two minutes later, they were considering abandoning ship.

A six-foot, 142-pound tarpon inhaled the seatrout, became hooked, and leaped into the boat. The big fish began breaking apart the boat’s chairs and teakwood trim work. The two anglers ran to the bow, until the tarpon, exhausted, stopped leaping. When they took the tarpon back to their home port, Brunswick, they learned the fish exceeded the Georgia state record by more than four pounds.

The skies over the Eastern Sierra last week seemed to be filled with tiny Kamloops strain rainbow trout.

About 640,000 of the trout floated through the skies, after they were dropped from a DFG stocking plane into selected Sierra back country lakes on July 17-18. The trout were dropped into 123 high lakes, from 200 to 300 feet above the lakes. The program is part of the DFG’s trout-stocking program. Trout didn’t evolve in the Sierra’s high, glaciated lakes, but the stocking of them provides thousands of backpacking fishermen with a unique fishing experience, in an Alpine environment.

BRIEFLY--The Department of Fish and Game reminds dove hunters not to confuse the opening day of the season this year with the opening weekend. The season begins one-half hour before sunrise, Sunday, Sept. 1. . . . Boating News Magazine recently identified the five most common types of recreation boating trouble, based on a Coast Guard list of 148 assistance cases: 1. Out of fuel; 2. Dead battery; 3. Minor engine failure; 4. Major engine or transmission failure; 5. Hull taking on water. . . . The state Department of Boating and Waterways and the Coast Guard recently conducted a boating safety workshop for Vietnamese commercial fishermen at Alameda. . . . The DFG says the state has 1,550 tule elk in 15 different locations, following several years of transplant projects with the main herd, in the Owens Valley. . . . Five of 20 people arrested in the San Francisco area in February for selling striped bass will serve jail time, the DFG said.