Ohio letters to the editor: Ohio’s mallard bag limit makes no sense

Commentaries and letters are the opinions of the writers, not necessarily those of Ohio Outdoor News.

In 2019 I wrote a Letter to the Editor asking why Ohio would institute a change in the daily bag limit of hen mallards from one to two in our daily bag limit.

Back then, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) duck surveys showed a steady decline of mallards over the years. The best answer I got from an Ohio state biologist was “we followed suit because our neighboring state to the north (Michigan) had increased their daily limit from one to two.”

So, here we are today showing a 23% decline of mallards since 2019. The USFWS duck survey was published in August 2022 by Ohio Outdoor News.

In the last 30 years, the waterfowl numbers have decline severely. My
question to the state is: Why are we continuing the harvest of two hen
mallards in our daily bag limit when the total mallard population is
dwindling rapidly? It just doesn’t make any sense to me.

Pete Semenya Shreve

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