Public Media for Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

New Generation May Taste Emperor Goose

USGS

The Association of Village Council Presidents begins a co-management meeting today, March 20, in Bethel to discuss the upcoming harvest season for ducks and geese. Along with more than a dozen community representatives, biologists and managers from the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge will be here to put together recommendations for the Alaska Migratory Bird Co-management Council. The public comment period just closed on the Council's plan to open the first subsistence hunt in a generation for emperor goose, and there is also a proposal to re-open a hunt for the cackling Canada goose. 

In general, the long-standing co-management arrangement has been highly successful in restoring populations of waterfowl that were biologically threatened. Each year has seen fewer restrictions on egg gathering and other means of harvesting the resource.