Both Barrels July - Southland

That’s a Wrap: The End of the Waterfowl Hunting Season in Southland

The waterfowl hunting season has now wrapped up in Southland. For many hunters, it was one of the better seasons in recent years. Some reported an excellent Opening Weekend and steady success throughout, while others felt it was more in line with a typical season. However your season went, we hope you were able to enjoy time outdoors with friends, family, and hunting dogs, and put a few tasty game birds on the table.

Assessing Hunter Opinions and Activity

As many hunters will know, we run fortnightly game bird harvest surveys throughout the hunting season. Each round, we speak with around 120 hunters to gather information on hunting activity and harvest levels. This data helps us monitor the harvest of each game bird species and informs our management decisions.

While understanding harvest trends and the biological drivers of game bird populations is important for effective management, it's equally important to consider the human dimension. Factors such as hunter satisfaction, participation, ethics, opinions, and broader hunting culture are all important considerations when setting hunting regulations.

This season, we expanded our harvest surveys to include questions on season length preference, support for split season bag limits, Opening Weekend (OW) bag limit preferences, and hunting activity beyond OW. The responses have provided valuable insight into the views of Southland hunters and highlighted just how varied those views can be.

Shorter or longer season?

When asked about preferred season length, Southland hunters were nearly evenly split. Just over 40% of respondents favoured a shorter season of 2.5 months or less, often citing personal ethical reasons and game bird population sustainability. On the other side, 43% supported a longer, three-month season, valuing increased opportunity for time in the maimai with friends, family and hunting dogs.

Southland Fish & Game Councillor Lyndon Norman hunting with his dog on the last weekend of the season.

Split season bag limits

The Southland Fish & Game Region has traditionally applied a split season mallard bag limit, with higher limits during Opening Weekend followed by a lower daily limit for the rest of the season. However, this year saw a shift with a consistent daily bag limit of 25 mallards throughout the entire season. Despite the change, out survey showed continued support for the traditional split bag limit. Just under 60% of hunters preferred the split season approach, while around a quarter of respondents said they had no preference either way.

What’s the right mallard bag limit for Opening Weekend?

With the 2025 Opening Weekend mallard limit increased to 25 birds per day (up from 20), we asked hunters what their preferred limit would be. Once again, opinions were split; around 30% preferred a limit equal to or less than 20, while another 30% supported a limit of 25 or more. Over 20% said the limit should be season-dependent (based on population size), declining to suggest a fixed number.

Participation beyond Opening Weekend

Gerhard Uys enjoying a successful late season-drift hunt on the Aparima River.

To get a sense of how many hunters continue to actively head out after the buzz of Opening Weekend, we asked respondents how many times they had hunted during the season (excluding Opening Weekend). The median was two hunts (interquartile range: 0-4), with:

• 42% of hunters getting out three times or more, and
• 29% not hunting at all after Opening Weekend.

These figures show there are certainly a very active group of game bird hunters in Southland but also others who despite their best intentions, fail to get out as much as they would like to after opening weekend.

Overall, these results give us a better understanding of hunter behaviour and preferences in Southland which will help with future decision making.

To those hunters who took the time to speak with us, thanks very much. We look forward to talking with Southland hunters again next season.