Teg As Ue DeUT Bb OrNe eBaUely Lite lel N 7 
in 1944 and that a declining cycle was well under way, the Society recom- 
mended that the open hunting season be cut from 80 to 30 days, the bag 
limit from 10 to 5 ducks per day, and that the possession limit be made the 
same as the bag limit. Today, it appears to be widely recognized that these 
recommendations did not go far enough. The action taken by the federal 
government was to reduce the open season from 80 to 45 days, the bag limit 
from 10 to 7 ducks, and to leave the possession limit double the bag limit. 
While the duck supply has been going down, the hunting pressure has 
been going up, as is impressively illustrated by the fact that the number of 
duck stamps sold during the past season reached an all-time high of ap- 
proximately 2,000,000, or roughly 20 per cent more than in the preceding 
year. This is in line with the figures of increase of hunting pressure on 
all kinds of game for the year ending June 30 last, in which hunting license 
sales in the 48 states reached an all-time high of 9,854,313, or approximately 
20 per cent more than in the preceding year. The license revenues of the 
48 states increased more than 27 per cent to a high of $19,805,444. 
Trained game managers know that heavy take during the downtrend of 
a population cycle is disastrous, yet this is just what has been happening. 
The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, for years, has made an annual count 
just after the close of the hunting season, in January; these counts, though 
far from accurate as to totals, do indicate the trend. The figures of this 
winter’s count have not yet been given out, but the duck-hunting fraternity 
throughout the nation well knows, from its own experience of the past 
hunting season, that the duck population is at a new low. They do not 
need to await the government release of the January count to find that out. 
There is no historical precedent for the termination of a downward cycle 
in waterfowl population in as short a period as three years. There would 
therefore seem to be no need of awaiting word as to this spring’s breeding- 
ground results before arriving at the conclusion that there are only two 
reasonable alternatives: (1) further drastic restrictions on allowed take, 
or (2) a temporary closing. : 
Now, whatever the differing beliefs may be as to the principal causes of 
decline, the fact remains that control of the kill by man is the only means 
we have of quickly contributing to the restoration of an adequate breeding 
stock. It is apparent that the carrying capacity of both breeding and 
wintering grounds far exceeds, at this time, the number of ducks alive to 
use them. Restoration of breeding and wintering grounds and the mainte- 
nance of refuges through expenditure of government or other funds, we 
highly commend and fully support, but such procedures alone will not 
suffice to meet the present emergency. Moreover, as experience has demon- 
strated that the regulation plan which has been in effect does not work well 
enough, it appears that mere further restrictions under it would not attain 
the necessary result. 
The Society has always recognized the recreational value of field sports, 
legally pursued. It has never opposed hunting. It does believe in regula- 
tion of deliberate take such that there may be no net depletion in the breed- 
ing stock. In advocating at this time a halt in the kill and the working out 
