We often muse about the future of waterfowl hunting. The current edition of Canada's Outdoors Sportsman says Western Canada's ducks and geese are virtually unlimited. The "real threat to waterfowling is declining hunter numbers."
Licensed resident migratory bird hunters in Canada hit an all-time high of 506, 681 in 1978 and the most recent survey in 2005 shows the number had fallen to 140, 926---for the entire country, Atlantic to Pacific to Arctic Oceans. C'mon up!
Manitoba to British Columbia has lost between 60 and 75 per cent of their resident waterfowl hunters. The Canadian Wildliife Service reports that the most obvious decline is among 15- to 34-year-olds.
Why? Starting families, less discretionary incomes, the increasing perception that hunting is obsolete and politically incorrect, possibly concern avian flu, and, I think, the rigamarole of the long-gun registry.
At the rate we're going, our hunting heritage is gone. The cannonading of the monster guns with 3- and 3 1/2-inch shells in our harbour is pushing it right along. I close my windows when I'm not out with my comparative popguns.
