A collision of greed and incompetence has decimated a once healthy population of Emperor Geese. I can think of no modern North American equivalent to this tragedy.

2017- Emperor population 177,000. A sport hunting season opens allowing a maximum of 1,000 tags, around 200 Geese are harvested per year.
Along with sport hunting a "Subsistence" hunt is allowed, "locals" can harvest Goose eggs and kill Geese in the spring while they're breeding.

2025- Emperor population 23,000, all hunting closed after a dramatic crash in population that apparently "no one" could see coming.

What could go wrong?!

I don't think the sport hunting with extremely limited tag numbers was what led to the population decline

Bird flu must be killing swans and snow geese too…… not much of a return in the far west corner of WA this year….

Beautiful Birds

I could be wrong, but I don't think the subsistence harvest is included in the hunting ban. They'll continue to hunt them and collect unknown number of eggs.

Maybe this administration will do something about modernized "subsistence" hunting.

Do the Natives leave dumpsters of wasted geese and eggs, like the Natives do walleye?

Keith

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The bird flu has taken a large number of wild birds in the last few years and if anyone with any knowledge of wildlife can see their numbers are way down.

Not sure what RFK Jr has to do with this.

Eggs are high in cholesterol.

Yes indeed. I remember three years ago being at my parents for awhile in the spring doing some shed hunting. I was perplexed by the number of dead hawks I found over the course of a few days. Then I opened up the local paper and half of it was discussing the massive bird flu outbreak in ducks and geese in the area.

I would say sport hunting had little to do with the decline in the numbers.

Alaska will not hold an emperor goose hunt for the 2025-2026 season—and potentially for years to come. Both subsistence and sport hunting for the species has been closed after the population threshold dropped below the minimum numbers required for allowing hunting under a Pacific Flyway Management Plan for the species.

Sport hunting for emperor geese, which live in the rocky beaches and brackish waters of coastal Alaska and Russia, is managed under a federal regulatory framework based off an annual breeding survey index. If the population is above 28,000 birds, a 1,000-bird quota is allotted to sport hunters. A count between 23,000 and 28,000 allows for a restricted sport harvest of 500 birds. Below 23,000 triggers an automatic closure of sport hunting, which is managed by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG)—as well as subsistence hunting, which is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Sport hunting for emperor geese takes place on the Aleutian Islands. Over the past eight years, Aleutian Island Waterfowlers has become one of the outfitters specializing in hunting for the bucket-list bird. The outfitter’s owner Captain Charlie Summerville argues that subsistence hunting has a higher impact on the species than sport hunting and says that the sport hunting closure will significantly impact the local economy.


“It’s going to be a huge economic factor,” he tells F&S. “A fully guided emperor goose hunt is between $5,000 and $6,000 dollars, plus airfare, food, and lodging, you’re talking nearly $10,000 per person in generated income supporting the Alaska economy.”

Good cholesterol.

I think you missed the point, Bruce.

I'm guessing that bird flu rather than egg hunting is what's causing the decline. I've seen literally thousands of dead sea birds at a time laying along miles and miles of beach on Bristol Bay (Bering Sea) in recent years.

Bird flu has had an impact everywhere but no one thought "maybe we should reevaluate killing nesting birds in the spring and taking their eggs" in light of bird flu and rapidly declining numbers?

Do they have much land based predation in the spring besides humans? Fox, maybe otter up there pounding the eggs as well as avians?
I’ve seen what otters can do to eggs and chicks here, it’s bad. If that’s a part of it up there are trappers needed?

Osky

Having spent a lot of time in recent years in an area where emperor geese spend their fall and winter, I haven't encountered any locals who take them for subsistence use; apparently there are waterfowl that taste a lot better.
I imagine fox and other predators take way more eggs than do humans.
Apparently these geese have a low reproduction rate to begin with; the females don't nest every year, they won't lay a second clutch if they lose the first one, they don't lay a lot of eggs, etc..
https://www.fws.gov/node/263386

“It’s going to be a huge economic factor,” he tells F&S. “A fully guided emperor goose hunt is between $5,000 and $6,000 dollars, plus airfare, food, and lodging, you’re talking nearly $10,000 per person in generated income supporting the Alaska economy.”

I have seen a report on Atlantic Salmon that came to the conclusion that harvesting for food is a very poor use of the Salmon Resource. A fish is worth less than $50 as food, but the amount of money spent on catching one was around $10,000 at the time.
And the fish are released so the resource is never harmed in the least.

I think that Sportsmen might be wise to make economic arguments when talking about seasons/harvests.