Waterfowl hunter, guides sentenced

Two hunting guides with Duck Hole Outfitters in Sledge, Miss., and one of their clients were recently sentenced in a federal District Court in the Northern District of Mississippi for exceeding the waterfowl and dove hunting limits from 1997 to 2000.

The guides, Chuck W. Aldison and Robert E. Aldison Jr., and the client, Robert W. Hess, from Newark, Ohio, pled guilty to violating the Lacey Act and Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

A covert investigation, conducted by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents and Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks officers, exposed the violations.

Hess was fined $5,000 and placed on three years probation, while Chuck and Robert Aldison were each fined $3,500 and placed on two years probation. Hess and the Aldisons are prohibited from hunting, guiding, or outfitting any where in the world for the term of probation.

“This conviction should send a clear message to other guides and outfitters that if they aid and abet hunters with violating federal laws, they will be held accountable,” said USFWS agent Robert Oliveri.

According to Oliveri, the investigation revealed flagrant violations of killing more than the daily bag limit of federally protected migratory game birds. During 1997-2000, a hunter was allowed to take 15 doves as the daily bag limit; however, Hess killed more than 60 doves during a morning and an afternoon hunt in September 2000. Hess also killed as many as 25 ducks during one hunt.

Hess and the Aldisons often took two limits of ducks a day during this time period, a tactic to avoid apprehension often described as “double-tripping.”

Commission sets oyster seasons

Opening and closing dates for the 2002-03 oyster season were set at a recent meeting of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission.

The oyster season in the following areas will open one-half hour before sunrise on Sept. 4 and will close one-half hour after sunset on April 1, 2003: the Louisiana Public Oyster Seed Grounds not currently under lease in the area bordered on the north by the Mississippi Gulf Outlet and on the south by the Mississippi River and North Pass, the sacking only area of the public grounds which is generally Lake Fortuna and Lake Machias to a line from Mozambique Pt. to Pt. Gardner to Grace Pt. at the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, the Hackberry Bay Oyster Seed Reservation, and the outside portion of the Atchafalaya-Vermilion Bay Public Oyster Seed Grounds. The oyster season in the Bay Gardene Public Oyster Seed Reservation will open one-half hour before sunrise on Sept. 4 and close one-half hour after sunset on April 15, 2003.

The oyster season in the Louisiana Public Oyster Seed Grounds not currently under lease located in the area bordered on the east by the Louisiana/Mississippi state line and on the south by the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, including a portion of Lake Borgne, will open one-half hour before sunrise on Sept. 23 and close one-half hour after sunset on April 1, 2003.

The oyster season in the Bay Junop Public Oyster Seed Reservation will open one-half hour before sunrise on Sept. 4 and close one-half hour after sunset on Oct. 4.

The following areas will remain closed to oyster harvest for the 2002-03 oyster season: Sister Lake Oyster Seed Reservation, the Public Oyster Seed Grounds in portions of Lake Mechant, Lake Tambour, Lake Chien, Lake Felicity, Deep Lake and Barataria Bay Public Oyster Seed Grounds, and a portion of the Atchafalaya-Vermilion Bay Public Oyster Seed Grounds.

Trapping season dates set

The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission recently adopted a declaration of emergency which set the statewide fur harvest season in Louisiana. The commission also gave the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries authority to extend or shorten the adopted season as necessary.

The 2002-03 fur harvest season will begin Nov. 20 and remain open until March 31, 2003, statewide. This will be the first season trappers may also participate in the Louisiana Coastwide Nutria Control Program. In this program, licensed trappers will receive a payment of $4 per nutria tail delivered to collection centers established in coastal Louisiana.

This program is designed as an economic initiative for trappers to help control the nutria population in coastal Louisiana. Any trapper who wishes to participate must submit the completed appropriate application beginning Oct. 1.

Tentative waterfowl season set

The LWFC recently set the tentative Waterfowl Hunting Season dates for 2002-03. The commission set the dates for duck, coot, goose, rail and gallinule seasons at a recent meeting. The commission voted to slightly modify the suggested dates submitted by the LDWF, by adding more days to the first split in the West Zone. The tentative dates are based on frameworks set by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Migratory Bird Management.

The season dates are as follows:

Ducks and Coots (except pintail and canvasback)

WEST ZONE: Nov. 9 – Dec. 8 (30 days), Dec. 21 – Jan. 19 (30 days);

EAST ZONE: (including Catahoula Lake): Nov. 16 – Dec. 1 (16 days), Dec. 14 – Jan. 26 (44 days); Pintails

WEST ZONE: Nov. 9 – Dec. 8 (30 days)

EAST ZONE: Nov. 16 – Dec. 1 (16 days), Dec. 14 – Dec. 27 (14 days); Canvasback Statewide:

WEST ZONE: Nov. 2-3

EAST ZONE: Nov. 9-10;

Limits – The daily bag limit on ducks is six and may include no more than four mallards (of which no more than two may be females), three mottled ducks, one black duck, two wood ducks, one pintail (during the specified 30 day season only and during youth hunts), three scaup, and two redhead. Daily limit on coots is 15. The daily limit for mergansers is five, and only one of which may be a hooded merganser.

Merganser limits are in addition to the daily bag limit for ducks.

The possession limit on ducks, coots and mergansers is twice the daily bag limit.

Geese: Light Geese (Snow, Blue and Ross’) and White-Fronted Geese

STATEWIDE: Nov. 2 – Dec. 8 (37 days), Dec. 14 – Jan. 31 (49 days)

The daily bag limit on light geese (snow, blue and Ross’) is 20. There is no possession limit on light geese.

The daily bag limit on white-fronted geese is two. The possession limit is four.

Canada Geese

STATEWIDE: (with the exception of one area as described below): Jan. 18 – Jan.

26 (9 days)

The Canada Goose Season will be open statewide except for a portion of southwest Louisiana.

The closed area is described as follows:

Beginning at the Texas state line, proceeding east along LA Hwy. 82 to the Calcasieu Ship Channel, the north along the Calcasieu Ship Channel to its junction with the Intracoastal Canal, the east along the Intracoastal Canal to it juncture with LA Hwy. 82, then south along LA Hwy. 82 to its juncture with Parish Road 3147, then south and east along Parish Road 3147 to Freshwater Bayou Canal, then south to the Gulf of Mexico, the west along the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico to the Texas state line, the north to the point of beginning at LA Hwy. 82.

A special permit shall be required to participate in the Canada Goose season. A permit is required of everyone, regardless of age, and a non-refundable $5 administrative fee will be charged. This permit may be obtained from any license vendor.

Conservation Order For Light Geese (Snow, Blue and Ross’)

STATEWIDE: Dec. 9 – Dec. 13 (5 days), Feb. 1 – Mar. 9 (37 days)

Only snow, blue and Ross’ geese may be taken under the terms of the Conservation Order, which allows the use of electronic calls and unplugged shotguns, and eliminates the daily bag and possession limits. During the Conservation Order, shooting hours begin one-half hour before sunrise and extend until one-half hour after sunset.

STATEWIDE: Nov. 9 – Jan. 1 (54 days)

For King and Clapper Rails, the daily bag limit is 15 in the aggregate, and the possession limit is 30. Sora and Virginia Rails have daily and possession limits of 25 in the aggregate.

Gallinules

STATEWIDE: Nov. 9 – Jan. 1 (54 days)

The daily bag limit for gallinules is 15, and the possession limit is 30.

Snipe

STATEWIDE: Nov. 2 – Dec. 8 (37 days), Dec. 14 – Feb. 21 (70 days)

For snipe, the daily bag limit is eight and the possession limit is 16. For the waterfowl hunting seasons, the shooting hours are one-half hour before sunrise to sunset, except at the Spanish Lake Recreation Area in Iberia Parish where shooting hours, including the Conservation Order, end at 2 p.m.