OR SOMETHING!
I suppose this is intended to be good news? The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) cut moose permits by 22% which caused the hunter success rate to climb about 10 percent above the previous two years, but far behind historic rates of success. This mirrors the deer hunt, where Maine has been mired in dismal deer harvest results for so long, that if we can harvest 20,000 deer, champagne bottles are uncorked and there’s dancing in the street.
However, MDFIW does NOT have the actual total YET of moose harvest data: “Six tagging stations still need to report numbers from the 2016 hunt, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.”<<<Read More>>>
The final day of moose hunting, in some southern zones, ended on November 26, 2016. We don’t know the location of the six holdouts (the earliest closure date was October 1), but if they come from the southern region, it’s been 2 months since the season ended and these slackers have not reported their data. Why does MDIFW allow this and why would they solicit, again, any entity that can’t manage to file a handful of reports? Obviously this is not important to MDIFW.
Now, MDIFW is going to have to figure out how many moose permits to issue for 2017, when they don’t have a clue as to the moose population and the health of the herd statewide. But, evidently that doesn’t matter anymore…or did it ever? “The permits are not determined by the harvest,” Camuso said. “They are determined by the data gathered by biologists from the study, from an aerial survey and from deer-hunter sightings. That’s put into a population model to determine permit allocations.”<<<Read More>>>
How was this determination made previously? The “study” is but 2 or 3 years old. We don’t even know if the study results will be, or are indicative of, the statewide moose population. Aerial surveys have been taking place about as long as the moose study. And, of the decades that I have hunted deer in Maine I’ve never been asked about any moose sightings. I don’t get it.
Modeling is, at best, a rigged system that is only as good as the model parameters and the garbage injected into the model to achieve a result. Historically, models have proven to be a worthless instrument – unless there’s politicking that needs taking care of. The results are interesting to look at and can be easily manipulated simply by tweaking the algorithm or the inputted data.
Ah, technological progress! Once everyone is convinced that computers know more about reality…..oh, wait! They already are convinced. That is why the entire planet has succumbed to the disease and morphed into Techo-Zombies. Excuse me. I am lost and wrong and the Techo-Zombies and their toys are right. Perhaps I should employ some of this technology and get beamed to hell out of here.
None of this really matters, now does it? After all, if the modeling don’t tell managers what they want it to, there will always be Climate Change to fall back on – and I’ll wager climate change is somehow factored into that “population model.” What do you think?
Old Hunter says:
