‘It is fun, but it’s also important’: How airboats are tied to Utah’s duck hunting regulations

WEBER COUNTY, UT — With duck hunting season just around the corner have you ever wondered how the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources decides what the bag limit is? Or what future conservation efforts may need to be taken? Surprisingly enough, it all starts on airboats.   

On Tuesday night, biologists, wildlife managers and volunteers took to the water at Ogden Bay Waterfowl Management Area. It was one of three nights planned this week. The goal is to catch a total of 2,000 ducks.  

“When I was younger, I could catch quite a few but catching birds is a young person’s game,” State Migratory Game Bird Coordinator Jason Jones told ABC4. “Driving the airboat is an older person’s game.”  

After two decades, Jones may have hung up his net but is still teaching the young people how to catch as many birds as possible. “The best technique is to be fast,” he explained. “Be aggressive with your dip net. You’ve got to catch them overhand. If you catch them underhand, you’re going to lose the net.”  

The ducks recently molted their feathers so they can’t fly. At night they don’t see the boats coming and are easier to catch than they would be in the day.  

Two people kneel at the front of the boat with nets. They scoop up the ducks. The person directly behind them grabs the ducks from the net and places them in a crate. 

“It looks fun. It is fun, but it’s also important work,” stated Jones. “It’s difficult to catch a good number of birds so we need folks that are good at it, so it pays to have some experienced people who can get out here and do the work.”  

When the crates are full, they are taken to shore. There more wildlife experts identify each duck’s species, age and sex. Then each is given a unique leg band. If a person hunts one of these ducks or runs across one that appears to have died by natural causes, that person can report the number to www.reportband.gov.   

Reporting the band numbers helps paint a better picture of migration patterns, mortality rates, etc. “This is part of wildlife management,” Jones said. “This is how set harvest regulations for waterfowl on a larger scale.”