GREAT OUTDOORS: Duck season opens to mixed numbers, fewer hunters

Ohio's goose, duck, coot and merganser season opens statewide October 18. Although the state is divided into three waterfowl zones, this opening date is the same throughout Ohio.The closing of the first "split" and re-opening dates in the Lake Erie Marsh Zone, North Zone and South Zone for goose and the duck, coot and merganser varies and is too wordy to replicate here. Instead, check the dates, rules and regulations that are available in the 2025-26 Ohio Hunting and Trapping Regulations Guide. It is available in its printed form wherever licenses are sold; at Ohio Division of Wildlife offices; online at WildOhio.gov; or on their mobile app, HuntFish OH. News from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) shows that the 2025 duck numbers are down for some species and up in others. Their aerial surveys conducted in the spring breeding range since 1955 counts breeding pond availability to evaluate nesting conditions as a method of estimating certain waterfowl populations and compares them to previous annual and long term average (LTA) numbers. Mallards, the most numerous species at 6,554,000 are down 1% from last year and down 17% long term. Blue-winged teal dropped to 4,432,000 (4% from last year, 13% long term) and ccaup (bluebills) fell further to 3,675,000 (10%, 25%). Increasing are gadwall (2,414,000, 6%/17%), American widgeon (3,191,000, 9%/22%, redhead (918,000, 17%, 25%) and canvasback (690,000, 22%/17%). Wood ducks, which hunters annually bag in large numbers, nest in tree cavities or artificial nest boxes and are not able to be similarly counted so are not included in this USFWS survey. Goose numbers remain strong. These surveys formerly carried higher significance within the waterfowl hunting population. For decades, according to Ducks Unlimited, "The number of active waterfowlers in the United States closely tracked duck breeding populations." Despite an abundance of ducks, hunter numbers began to gradually decline in the early 2000s. The average age of the American duck hunter is now just over 50, 20% of duck hunters are over 60 and participation in hunting drops off sharply after 70. Waterfowlers are being lost at greater rates than are being replaced. After waterfowl hunter numbers saw a brief increase during the 2020 season, the USFWS Migratory Bird Hunter Activity and Harvest Report indicated that the number of active waterfowl hunters in the U.S. in 2022-2023 was 913,700 — almost an 8% decline from the previous season and the lowest since 1962. During the 10 years between the 2012-13 and 2022-23 seasons, the number of active waterfowlers decreased by almost 235,000 — a drop of more than 20%. Canadian Wildlife Service statistics indicate that 125,635 residents hunted waterfowl in 2022-23. That's about a 75% decrease from the 505,681 Canadians who hunted waterfowl in 1978 and the lowest number since the country began tracking numbers in 1966. "More people are falling out the bottom — exiting hunting — than are coming in the top," says Joel Brice, Delta Waterfowl's Chief Conservation Officer in a recent Paul Wait article. "It's people aging out and a percentage of people losing interest." Older, more experienced hunters often serve as mentors for beginning waterfowlers and provide crucial support for waterfowl conservation and management. Without avid duck hunters, more of the preserved local wetland habitat that was initially drained for farming would now have condos, marinas, storage units, industrial parks and other development instead.