More than half of Victoria's registered duck hunters harvested close to 320,000 game ducks in 2023, as the Game Management Authority revealed the most popular hunting areas across the state.
Sale, Kerang, Geelong and Echuca record the highest numbers of ducks harvested in 2023, with GMA results revealing an estimated 319,000 game ducks were shot, close to the long-term average of 320,000 a season.
It comes as the 2023 duck and quail hunting seasons were controversially reduced in length to five weeks and the duck daily bag limit was reduced to four birds.
However, concerns have been raised after about 302,824 stubble quail were harvested this year, well above the yearly long-term average of 149,000.
The most popular quail hunting areas were around the towns of Kerang, Donald, Shepparton, Geelong and Rochester.
GMA director strategy and research Simon Toop said the research was based on information gathered from randomly-selected licensed game bird hunters who voluntarily participated in the phone surveys.
"Throughout 2023, approximately 2920 licensed game bird hunters were surveyed to collect information about their hunting activity, including how many game birds were harvested, where hunting occurred, hunting methods used, and the species of game birds harvested," he said.
The three most commonly harvested species were the Pacific Black Duck (45 per cent of the total harvest), Grey Teal (29pc) and Australian Wood Duck (18pc).
Of the 21,959 licensed duck hunters, 65pc actively hunted in 2023 and on average, active duck hunters harvested an estimated 22.7 ducks over an average of 7.1 days.
"The information hunters provide helps build a stronger understanding of gamebird harvest trends and hunting activity in Victoria" Mr Toop said.
The report is produced annually by the GMA in collaboration with the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research.
For a full copy of the Estimates of duck and Stubble Quail harvest in Victoria 2023 report, visit gma.vic.gov.au.
