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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 134 / Friday, July 16, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
abundance. The predicted estimate was 5.83 million birds. Because this estimate is greater than 4.7 million birds, the teal season guidelines indicate that a 16-day special September teal season with a 6-teal daily bag limit is appropriate for States in the Atlantic, Mississippi, and Central flyways. Further, the guidelines indicate that in Florida, Kentucky, and Tennessee, in lieu of a 16-day special September teal season, a 5-day special September teal-wood duck season with a daily bag limit of 6 birds in the aggregate, of which no more than 2 may be wood ducks, is appropriate. In addition, a 4-day special September teal season with a 6-teal daily bag limit, either immediately before or immediately after the 5-day teal-wood duck season, is appropriate.
Council Recommendations: The Mississippi Flyway Council recommended that Minnesota be allowed to conduct an experimental special September teal season for a 3-year period beginning in 2021 or 2022
following the framework for all other States in the Mississippi Flyway.
Service Response: As we described in the August 28, 2014, Federal Register 79 FR 51402, the Flyway Councils and Service completed a thorough assessment of the harvest potential for teal blue-winged, green-winged, and cinnamon, as well as an assessment of the impacts of current special September seasons on these three species. The assessment indicated that additional hunting opportunity could be provided for teal. Therefore, we supported recommendations from the Atlantic, Mississippi, and Central Flyway Councils to establish new hunting seasons e.g., September teal seasons in northern States and expanded hunting opportunities e.g., season lengths, bag limits in States with existing teal seasons. Further, we confirmed that we were willing to consider proposals to conduct experimental September teal seasons in northern production States if fully evaluated for impacts to teal and nontarget species. We also provided criteria for evaluation of these experimental seasons. Thus, we agree with the Mississippi Flyway Councils recommendation to allow an experimental special September teal season in Minnesota beginning in 2021
or 2022.
We earlier approved a 3-year experimental season in Minnesota beginning in 2014. However, Minnesota opted out of the experiment at that time.
The criteria established in 2014
regarding the experimental season and transition to operational status will again apply see 79 FR 51403, August
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28, 2014. In addition, we clarify that criteria for operational status must be met by Minnesotas experimental season results alone, and not in combination with data from other States. We will work with Minnesota to develop an evaluation plan and associated memorandum of agreement MOA for this experiment detailing the required sample sizes, decision criteria for the experimental season to become operational, and roles and responsibilities. The plan will consist of a 3-year evaluation of hunter performance via spy blind studies with regard to attempt and kill rates on nontarget species during the experimental September teal season.
ii. September Teal-Wood Duck Seasons Using band-recovery data for birds banded in summer and fall 2019 and harvested during the 201920 hunting season, we estimated kill rates for adult male wood ducks in the eastern United States to be 0.112 rangewide and 0.119
northern birds only. These values are below those in which analyses suggest bag limit restrictions may be needed rangewide = 0.166; northern birds =
0.143. These results, combined with the predicted blue-winged teal estimate reported above indicate a 5-day September teal-wood duck season with a daily bag limit of 6 birds in the aggregate, of which no more than 2 may be wood ducks, is appropriate in Florida, Kentucky, and Tennessee for the 202122 season.
iii. Black Ducks Council Recommendations: The Atlantic and Mississippi Flyway Councils recommended continued use of the AHM protocol for black ducks, and adoption of the moderate regulatory alternative for their respective flyways.
The Flyway-specific regulations consist of a daily bag limit of two black ducks and a season length of 60 days.
Service Response: The Service, Atlantic and Mississippi Flyway Councils, and Canada adopted an international AHM protocol for black ducks in 2012 77 FR 49868; August 17, 2012 whereby we set black duck hunting regulations for the Atlantic and Mississippi Flyways and Canada based on the status and demographics of these birds. The AHM protocol clarifies country-specific target harvest levels, and reduces conflicts over regulatory policies.
For the 202122 hunting season, we evaluated country-specific alternative harvest regulations using: 1 A
management objective of 98 percent of maximum long-term sustainable harvest; 2 country-specific regulatory
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alternatives; and 3 current population models and associated weights. Based on the moderate regulatory alternative selected for the 202021 hunting season and the 2020 model predictions of 0.50
million breeding black ducks and 0.39
million breeding mallards Federal WBPHS strata 51, 52, 63, 64, 66, 67, 68, 70, 71, and 72; core survey area, the optimal regulation for the Atlantic and Mississippi Flyways is the moderate alternative and the liberal alternative in Canada. Therefore, we concur with the recommendations of the Atlantic and Mississippi Flyway Councils.
iv. Canvasbacks Council Recommendations: The Atlantic, Mississippi, Central, and Pacific Flyway Councils recommended adoption of the liberal regulatory alternative for their respective flyways.
The Flyway-specific regulations consist of a daily bag limit of two canvasbacks and a season length of 60 days in the Atlantic and Mississippi Flyways, 74
days in the Central Flyway, and 107
days in the Pacific Flyway.
Service Response: As we discussed in the March 28, 2016, Federal Register 81 FR 17302, the canvasback harvest strategy that we had relied on until 2015
was not viable under our new regulatory process because it required biological information that was not yet available at the time a decision on season structure needed to be made. We do not yet have a new harvest strategy to propose for use in guiding canvasback harvest management in the future. However, we have worked with technical staff of the four Flyway Councils to develop a decision framework hereafter, decision support tool that relies on the best biological information available to develop recommendations for annual canvasback harvest regulations. The decision support tool uses available information 19942014 on canvasback breeding population size in Alaska and north-central North America Federal WBPHS traditional survey area, strata 118, 2050, and 7577, growth rate, survival, and harvest, and a population model to evaluate alternative harvest regulations based on a management objective of maximum long-term sustainable harvest. The decision support tool calls for a closed season when the population is below 460,000, a 1-bird daily bag limit when the population is between 460,000 and 480,000, and a 2-bird daily bag limit when the population is greater than 480,000. Because abundance estimates were not available from the WBPHS, we used two different methods to predict canvasback abundance during spring 2020. One used a population model
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