Proposed teal limit reduction

The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission has made a proposed change to the 2019 - 2020 teal seasons to include a bag limit reduction: 'Reducing the daily bag limit of teal from six to four for the early September teal season.'

Public comment will be accepted at LWFC monthly meetings from February through March and/or can be submitted in writing by mail to: Tommy Tuma, LDWF Wildlife Division, P.O. Box 98000, Baton Rouge, LA 70898-9000, or via email to ttuma@wlf.la.gov until 9 a.m., March 7, 2019.

LDWF will also collect public comment at public hearings to be held Feb. 25-March 2 throughout the state. The locations and times for those meetings include:
•25 (Monday) at 6 p.m. at the Ponchatoula High School Library, 19452 Highway 22, Ponchatoula.
•26 (Tuesday) at 6 p.m. at the LDWF Lafayette Field Office, 200 Dulles Drive, Lafayette.
•27 (Wednesday) at 6 p.m. at the LDWF Minden Field Office, 9961 Highway 80, Minden.
•28 (Thursday) at 6 p.m. at the LDWF Monroe Field Office, 368 Century Link Drive, Monroe.
•March 1 (Friday) at 6 p.m. at the Alexandria Convention Hall, 915 3 rd Street, Alexandria.
•March 2 (Saturday) at 10 a.m. at the LSU Ag Center Building, 7101 Gulf Highway, Lake Charles.

For more information, contact Tommy Tuma at 225-765-2349 or ttuma@wlf.la.gov .

My response sent in opposition:

I just wanted to take a moment to strenuously object to the proposed reduction in the teal season bag limit. There is no evidence that this reduction will benefit teal populations or improve teal hunting. The movement of teal into the state is driven by climactic conditions during hunting season and the population of teal is driven by climactic conditions on the breeding grounds. The adaptive harvest management plan for teal is well vetted and by all accounts hunting mortality of bluewing teal is a minor contributor to overall mortality and likely compensatory in nature. Had the commissioners simply asked their own waterfowl biologist this would all have been explained. The LDWF has a long history of supporting wise waterfowl management and opposing 'knee-jerk' reduction in hunting opportunity as a response to transient issues. the very founding of the teal season is a great example of this. It would be highly contrary to that proud history (teal season, added wood duck bags, maintaining a 60 day mottled duck season ect.) to now go backwards on teal bag limits after the selfsame department expended funds and effort to achieve the increase just a few years ago. If there were ANY biological basis for surmising that this reduction would increase hunter enjoyment or was in anyway needed to protect the resource I would support it. However since neither of those conditions is the case here I again strongly object to the proposal.

I here this whole proposal is a bit of a lark.

You need to send your comments to the LDWF and/or attend one of the meetings to get them formally heard.
Thanks

Already sent it, will try to make the meeting but there isn't one near me really.

lanco1,Just noticed I will be near the Feb 25th LDWF meeting at 6:00pm at Ponchatoula High School(manning a Medicare booth at Ponchatoula Wal Mart that same day,8-3)and will stick around to attend meeting.Will e-mail Tommy Tuma to let him know I intend to attend!!Be glad to voice my opinion and hope others that are free to attend can do so!!

Mandevillian

Done, also asked what the LWFD Department Biologist are saying

Quick update, apparently the LWFD Biologist recommend a bag limit of 6 teal is the reply I just got from LWFD.

According to the USFWS 2018 Waterfowl Status report:

BW Teal are 27% above the long term average.

GW Teal are 42% above the long term average.

daily bag limits should be set based on science.

Absurd that these commissioners can come up with this recommendation without consulting their own biologists!
Their reasoning was that one of the commisioners talked to a few hunters?? WTF! are you serious?
Waterfowl limits are federally managed and set based on scientific data. I would think it is in Louisianas best interest to maximize our bag limit to be able to give our hunters the opportunity to get our share of birds. As it stands most seasons we don't have many birds that show up in Louisiana during teal season, so I don't see where we are even making a small dent in the bluewing teal population.
I really enjoy teal season and make at least 7-10 hunts and do really well, killing limits most hunts because the area we hunt has been loaded with teal the last few years. If the teal limit was reduced it would take away from my enjoyment of the season and it would have absolutely no impact on bringing in more birds to anyone else in our state. What will give hunters a better opportunity is the correct teal habitat and teal migration, neither of which are affected by a change in the bag limit.
The only reason I can think to lower the limit is so that more hunters can say they killed their limit. This a rediculous argument. What happens if we get a great migration this year and everyone has plenty opportunity and the bag limit is at 4??? Boy would we look stupid. And even worse there would be a group of idiots who would say the reason we had more birds this year is because we lowered the limits! Which is so absurd it makes my head hurt.
Why do we even have a set of commissioners and why would they be made up of non-biologists?

I agree daberry! Where did they find these commissioners!? These commissioners should be qualified biologists not just some anybody. There is no scientific data to lower the limit back down to four! Do they really think a bag limit of six is the reason why we have less blue wings the past few teal seasons? What a joke!

The LA Wildlife Commission needs to be fired!!! They do nothing good for us and they cave in too fast to pressure. L

I always thought the commissions role was to provide oversight to LDWF. It is perfectly OK for them to act as a liaison between the general public and the department. For any of those folks to directly propose changes to harvest regulations is an absolute abuse of power in my opinion. Any concerns should be worked through the department.
The LDWF is blessed with professionals that in many cases have spent their entire adult lives working in their individual fields of expertise. To even entertain the idea that an appointed commissioner is more knowledgeable than Larry Reynolds in the field of migratory waterfowl is absurd.
Personally I am a big fan of John Bel but if I was governor I would be replacing at least one commissioner.

I also noted that they intend to move up the opening of the coastal season from NOV. 16 to NOV 8th? Do you all remember just a few years ago they did the same thing b/c several commissioners all hunted and had leases in same area of SW coastal marsh. And we had a warm fall and ZERO birds for first 3 weeks of season. And we got same BS excuses from them then as well, ' i talked to a bunch of guys who want me to move it'. Turns out by bunch of guys they meant 'all the guys i hunt with on my lease who do better in first half of season than last b/c of water levels'.

Only in Louisiana is the commission run by political BS artists w/ zero scientific training and not a biologist. I openly appose the changes of teal limit to 4 or the advancement of the opening dates of coastal season.

Just received an e-mail stating that the commission has decided to now support a six teal limit during the special teal season. Public involvement and common sense certainly helped right the ship on this debacle. Thanks to all who made themselves heard.

Don't let you guard down.

Just outta curiosity,is the meeting set for Monday the 25th of this month still on??Was planning on attending and hate to sit around after my 8-3 pm stint at Ponchatoula Wal Mart for no good reason!!Plan to voice vehement opposition to that proposed reduction!!

Mandevillian