We’re hearing more sea duck hunting (boom-boom-boom) from the waters off the nearby islands as we get closer to that hunting season’s end on January 18. We usually don’t see the hunters until they return ashore, as is happening in this image of a duck hunting boat pulling into Naskeag Point yesterday to be trailered home.
Not everyone here is comfortable with shooting sea ducks (and other wild things), of course. However, most of us seem to recognize that it’s part of the unique character of Maine, an activity that has been ingrained in the culture of many of our coastal people since well before the Colonial Revolution. (Intertidal zone access to the King’s, State’s, and private property for sea water “fowling,” fishing, and navigation has been a continuous public right here since at least 1641.)
Nonetheless, sea duck hunting is highly regulated here. Sea ducks are defined as only Scoters, Eiders, and Long-Tailed Ducks. Among other current restrictions, individual licensed hunters may take no more than five such birds per hunting day, a period beginning half an hour before sunrise and ending at sunset. Of the allowable five birds, no more than four of any species may be taken. Hunters also must use nontoxic shot that will not sicken birds if they ingest the shot while feeding later in the area. (Brooklin, Maine)