fowl populations," he says. "We look 

 at their breeding areas to see the 

 quality of the habitat and the breeding 

 success and the winter census for 

 populations in the wintering areas. We 

 can tell by studying this data whether 

 a population is on the rise or wane." 



Luczcz says 23,000 to 26,000 hunters 

 shoot for waterfowl during the season 

 in North Carolina each year. The 

 Wildlife Commission sets a "bag limit" 

 for hunters to follow while hunting. 

 Under the bag limit, hunters can kill 

 only a limited number of waterfowl a 

 day. For instance, during this year's 

 season, hunters are limited to five 

 ducks, seven sea ducks, four snow 

 geese, one Canada goose and two 

 brandt per day. Some states use a 

 point system where each bird is worth 

 a certain number of points and a hun- 

 ter can only amass a set total of points 

 per day. 



The bag limit makes it easier for 

 hunters who can't easily identify ducks 

 and geese on the wing, Luczcz says. 

 But he emphasizes that waterfowl 

 hunters should be able to identify the 

 birds before they go hunting. "Those 

 hunters who make illegal kills or kills 

 by misidentification penalize them- 

 selves by making the Commission be 

 more restrictive with our regulations," 

 Luczcz says. "If hunters would just 

 pay more attention to regulations we 

 might be able to have longer seasons 

 and special seasons on certain species." 

 Another problem plaguing managers is 

 a controversy over the lead and steel 

 shot used to kill waterfowl. Hunters 

 have long preferred lead shot over steel 

 because it was denser, had a longer 

 range and had a greater impact. But 

 unfortunately those lead pellets that 

 don't hit the target fall back into the 



Courtesy of N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission 



marshes where waterfowl mistake 

 them for seeds. "When the duck takes 

 the shot into his system it is ground up 

 in his gizzard," Dick Brame says. 

 "This releases lead salts into the bird's 

 blood. After these salts build up, 

 waterfowl experience paralysis, usually 

 along the esophagus. The waterfowl 

 starve to death. It's not a pretty 

 sight." 



Already, Currituck, Dare and 

 Pamlico Counties, North Carolina's 

 most heavily hunted waterfowl coun- 

 ties, have outlawed the use of lead shot 

 (the Wildlife Commission is enforcing 

 these rulings). Some hunters, mad 

 about the steel-shot decisions, main- 

 tain steel shot has a shorter range, so 

 hunters wound but not kill their 

 targets. Biologists counter that deaths 

 among waterfowl from woundings 

 don't really match the deaths from 

 lead poisoning. Luczcz adds that re- 

 cent statistics have shown the most 

 modern steel loads have a comparable 

 or better range than lead shot. 



Luczcz says the federal government 

 was going to phase out use of lead in 

 the United States, but debate over the 

 controversy has left U.S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service treading water over 

 the matter. 



To get a broader perspective on 

 waterfowl, the state Wildlife Commis- 



sion participates in the Atlantic 

 Flyway Council, a cooperative venture 

 between the states along the Eastern 

 Seaboard and Canada to manage the 

 birds in the Atlantic Flyway. The 

 council sponsors research, formulates 

 regulations (that serve as recommen- 

 dations to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

 Service and subsequently the state 

 wildlife commissions) and works on 

 problems facing waterfowl. 



Federal help for waterfowl in North 

 Carolina partially comes in the form of 

 four wildlife refuges — Lake Mat- 

 tamuskeet, Swan Quarter, Pea Island 

 and Pungo. The refuges also use im- 

 poundments to provide more winter 

 habitat for the ducks, geese and swans. 

 At Lake Mattamuskeet, refuge 

 managers have worked out a deal with 

 local farmers to feed their winter 

 visitors. Steve Frick says farmers are 

 allowed to grow grain crops, usually 

 corn, on refuge lands in return for leav- 

 ing a percentage of the harvest in the 

 field. 



On a private level, waterfowl get 

 some help from a group called Ducks 

 Unlimited. Some 11,000 North Carolin- 

 ians belong to Ducks Unlimited, an 

 organization dedicated to conserving 

 and preserving waterfowl breeding 

 grounds in Canada. Don Manley, 

 regional director for Ducks Unlimited 

 in eastern North Carolina, says North 

 Carolina members contributed $1,036,000 

 last year, the only state to raise 

 over a million dollars east of the 

 Mississippi River. 



Manley says the organization 

 spends 80 cents of every dollar col- 

 lected in Canada, where 70 to 80 percent 

 of all North American waterfowl breed 

 and hatch. Ducks Unlimited funds pay 

 to maintain the Canadian wetland 



ft 



A line of ducks stretches endlessly through a marsh 



