By David Rainer
Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
The Alabama Conservation Advisory Board has a great deal to ponder after the board’s first meeting of the year.
Before the board convenes again on March 26, there will be several options to consider concerning the hunting seasons and bag limits.
A presentation by Chuck Sykes, Director of the Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (WFF) Division, provided the board with recommendations on season dates and bag limits.
Sykes proposed changes to the squirrel, rabbit and dove seasons as well as adding a no closed season provision for raccoons and opossums. Squirrel and rabbit seasons would run from Sept. 15, 2016, to March 5, 2017. Dove season in the north zone would shift dates from the first season split to the second split to take advantage of late-migrating birds. The North Zone dates would be September 10 through October 30 and December 8 through January 15, 2017. South Zone dates would be September 17-25,October 8-23 and November 12 through January 15, 2017.
On the fishing side, Sykes proposed changes that would make it illegal to possess any largemouth bass less than 15 inches in total length on Pickwick Reservoir to be consistent with Tennessee and Mississippi regulations. The length limit on sauger would be increased from 14 to 15 inches, and the requirement for 100 percent cotton line on trotlines would be deleted.
Sykes also posed a question to the board and those in attendance: “What percentage of Alabama residents buy a hunting license?” Sykes asked. “Don’t think about this group. I hope everybody in this group bought a hunting license.”
Sykes turned to the PowerPoint presentation on the screen.
“There are 4.8 million people in Alabama as of the 2014 census,” he continued. Sykes then pointed out the next bullet point, the number of hunting licenses sold last year – 178,614.
“That’s 3.7 percent of Alabama residents who bought a hunting license,” he said. “That’s pretty sad.
“Here’s how a loss of license sales impacts our budget. Sixty-six percent of every license dollar goes to pay for law enforcement. We cannot use any of our federal dollars (Pittman-Robertson Act and Dingell-Johnson Act) for law enforcement. Therefore, when license sales go down, the first thing that goes is law enforcement.”
Sykes received a number of questions concerning turkey issues. Sykes said there is a concern throughout the Southeast that the wild turkey population is on the declineS.
“We began an in-depth research project last year with Auburn University to finally get some baseline turkey data,” Sykes said. “In the proposed changes to the size lengths in fisheries, we have data to support those changes. We don’t have data to support turkeys right now. We’re getting it, but, historically, we do not have it.
“The Avid Turkey Hunter Survey, brood survey and gobble count were conducted again, trying to add to that baseline data. We conducted turkey-hunting listening sessions. It was monitored by Auburn researchers to find out what hunters wanted.”
Sykes said Auburn developed models from the listening sessions and provided those results to the Board.
However, Sykes informed the Board that there was insufficient data to support any changes at the present time to turkey seasons and bag limits.
For deer season, one proposal would reduce the number of days for antlerless deer harvests in one area of north Alabama. Based on landowner consultations and feedback from hunts and wildlife biologists, the recommendation is a 20-day either-sex season in that area (orange on the map). The rest of the state would keep the daily bag limit of one antlerless deer per day. Sykes said landowners within that restricted harvest area with a need for an increased antlerless harvest can contact WFF to enroll in the Deer Management Assistance Program, which would develop a site-specific harvest strategy.
In the continuing effort to keep Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) out of Alabama, WFF proposed an amended regulation that would prohibit the importation of certain deer parts. Only deboned meat, hides and antlers attached to a cleaned skull plate could be brought into the state.
Waterfowl hunters may see changes in shooting hours on WFF-controlled property as well as the establishment of resting areas with no hunting allowed. Also, the area between Battleship Parkway (Causeway) and the I-10 Bayway at the lower end of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta would become a waterfowl refuge.
The board also heard a presentation from Alabama Marine Resources Director Chris Blankenship about the success of the Red Snapper Reporting System, also known as Snapper Check.
That Snapper Check data indicated the NOAA Fisheries overestimated the harvest of red snapper off the Alabama coast by more than double. Blankenship said Marine Resources had a productive meeting with NOAA staff from Washington and hoped to have Snapper Check certified as the appropriate program for measuring the red snapper catch for Alabama.
The Alabama Conservation Advisory Board unanimously passed a resolution commending Marine Resources for the success of Snapper Check.
WFF’s Sykes noted that compliance with the Snapper Check was much higher than Game Check for hunters because Snapper Check is mandatory. Sykes pointed out that the voluntary system wasn’t working, proven by a participation rate of only about 3 percent.