The chief executive officer of Field and Game Australia is well-read on the regulations imposed on duck hunters and is as vigilant with hunters as he is up to speed with the facts and figures.
Mr Cooke spent day one of the 2024 duck season on Wednesday, April 10 visiting a large swathe of Victoria’s wetlands and spoke of his insistence that hunters do the right thing.
“There were reports today from GMA [Game Management Authority] that three hunters were found doing the wrong thing and I am pretty hard-line on this,” Mr Cooke said.
“Two blokes were found in Gippsland shooting without a licence and I am of the opinion ‘yeah, bugger them, throw the book at them’.
“If you don’t know you need a licence to hunt, then we don’t want you.”
The details of a third minor incident were given to Country News.
“But there were no reports of over-bagging or over-shooting — no-one has been charged with anything else,” Mr Cooke said.
“It would be safe to say no threatened species have been shot and no incidents of major concern have occurred in the hunting community.”
No reports were made within the Goulburn Valley catchment.
Mr Cooke is also savvy to the numbers game and said there were an estimated 7.1 million birds available to hunters in Victoria at present.
“When you know a 10 per cent off-take of that is sustainable, there’s plenty of birds to keep it sustainable.
“Which means up to 700,000 could be harvested this season and that number is far more than the highest of what’s ever been taken in any previous season.”
Mr Cooke said the season had begun with many hunters in the field on the first day and ‘plenty’ of birds.
“I think it has kicked off well; there’s been good hunter participation and plenty of hunters doing exactly as we would expect with everyone doing the right thing.
“There is a bit of a buoyant mood and although hunters aren’t particularly chuffed with some of the restrictions, they are happy to have a season.
“We want to keep it positive because there is plenty of hunting to be done.”
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