Mallard limit dropped to 2 birds in the Eastern flyway

And only 1 hen max. Opening day in SC / GA tomorrow so I was reviewing the regs. Mallard numbers in the Atlantic breeding grounds are apparently way down. The report from the Feds actually mentioned they considered no mallards at all for the Eastern flyway.

Something else mentioned is that they are going to benchmark each season by monitoring woodies, blue wing teal, goldeneye and I think scaup.

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which bases waterfowl regulations on annual surveys across North America, has determined that mallard populations in the Eastern U.S. are in decline.

The mid-continent mallard population still is stable, but the breeding population in northeastern states has declined by 38 percent since 1998. According to Peters, the northeastern population accounts for about 60 percent of the mallards taken in the Atlantic Flyway.

The Atlantic Flyway states include West Virginia, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia.

Because of the population decline, hunters in the Atlantic Flyway killed about 40 percent fewer mallards in 2016 than they did in 1998.