The Game Management Authority has today announced the arrangements for the 2023 Victorian duck season. This includes changes to the season length, start times, daily bag limit and hunted species.

The 2023 season will start at 8am on Wednesday, April 26, 2023 and will close 30 minutes after sunset on Tuesday, May 30, 2023. Start time each day of the season is 8am.

The bag limit is four birds per day.

Six game duck species are permitted to be hunted during the 2023 Victorian season: Pacific black duck, mountain duck, chestnut teal, grey teal, pink-eared duck and wood duck.

Blue-winged shoveler and hardhead may not be hunted across Victoria.

Details of the 2023 Victorian duck season, including any wetland closures, will be regularly updated at gma.vic.gov.au

FGA is hugely disappointed the Labor Government and legislators have chosen to ignore the science and reduce the season length and bag limit. This is a dramatic departure from Labor’s previous position of supporting safe, responsible and sustainable duck hunting.

FGA has expressed extreme concern that the regulator and legislators have chosen to cite poor hunter compliance and wounding rates as justification to modify the season, even though the government’s own figures show hunter compliance to be exceptionally high.

Leading Australian waterfowl scientists have repeatedly stated that habitat availability and breeding in 2022-2023 has been exceptional. FGA will seek clarification as to why the government has cited low bird numbers as a reason for season length and bag limit reduction.

The arrangements for the 2023 Victorian duck season are based on analysis and the modelling of habitat and waterbird abundance surveys conducted across eastern Australia, and other data relating to game duck abundance, habitat distribution and climate. A full-length season was recommended based on harvest modelling by two experts in waterfowl ecology and population dynamics, Professor Marcel Klaassen and Professor Richard Kingsford. They advised that reducing the bag limit is a more effective way to reduce the overall harvest of game ducks rather than reducing season length.

FGA is unclear as to why the Labor Government has departed from previous commitments that were repeated in Sustainable Hunting Action Plan 1 and SHAP 2 to rely on robust science to inform season setting arrangements.

FGA will continue to analyse this process and will be asking the government to reassess this decision. We will also be relying on our members in the coming days and weeks to assist in this process by making their voices heard.