The state government's Game Management Authority (GMA) has announced major changes to Victoria's duck season including a reduction in length, slashing the season to 35 days this year rather than the 90 days that hunters are accustomed to.
Shooters will be allowed bag limits of four birds per day, with the season beginning at 8am Wednesday April 26 until Tuesday May 30.
Hunting will cease 30 minutes after sunset each day.
The decision goes against GMA's interim model, which suggested the duck season run for a full 90 days with a bag limit of four birds per day.
"While the interim harvest model has been run to inform the settings for the 2023 duck season, the outputs of this model have been modified to provide a more precautionary approach to concerns regarding the rates of wounding of ducks," the GMA said in a statement announcing the duck season arrangement.
"Poor behaviour by some hunters, and the fact that waterbird abundance, breeding and habitat availability, all show long-term declines."
The hunting of Blue-winged Shoveler and Hardhead species of duck will also be banned this season due to them both being recently listed as threatened.
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The Sporting Shooters Association of Victoria hunting development manager David Laird slammed the decision, arguing that except for the four duck-a-day bag limit, there was no scientific reason for any modifications.
"Independent, expert ecologists developed Victoria's Interim Harvest Model and recommended a full-length season for 2023 with a four-bird bag limit," Mr Laird said.
"The Interim Harvest Model explicitly states that there is no rationale for modifying season lengths."
He said the state government committed to the Interim Harvest Model during the Victorian election campaign with an aim to an adaptive harvest model.
"The hunting organisations met with the relevant Minister, and the government's commitment to the status quo in that regard was clear," Mr Laird said,
"If the Government had other ideas, they had an opportunity to seek a mandate from the Victorian public for them."
Mr Laird also criticised the announcement of a select committee to examine native bird hunting which will be established through a government motion in the upper house next week.
"The South Australian Government took a similar proposal to their recent State Election, it looks both timid and tricky for the Victorian Government to have not done the same".
RSPCA Victoria chief executive Liz Walker however welcomed the committee, but she said was dismayed by the announcement that the season will proceed at all.
"In addition to animal suffering, today's announcement of a modified season... will further impact declining waterbird populations," Dr Walker said.
"Regardless of the reduced season length, based on a 35-day hunting season approximately 87,000 birds will be killed during the 2023 Victorian duck hunting season and up to 35,000 wounded and left to die."
Shadow Agriculture Minister Emma Kealy said the decision was an insult to hunters who are mostly doing the right thing.
"Yet year after year they're punished by a Labor Government intent on stamping out a legal, legitimate recreational activity that helps generate $356 million for our state," Ms Kealy said.
A compliance report last year released by the GMA showed only one hunter of 979 registered hunters had exceeded the daily limit.
The Victorian Duck Hunters Association had previously called for an increase on bag limits for the 2023 season, saying that those restrictions will cause headaches for farmers whose crops get destroyed by ducks.
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