Bruce Batt Quotations

Now the Arctic Snow Goose Venture has reconstituted a working group, asked them to give a progress reports and analyze all the new data that has been collected because there are a lot of ongoing research. We'll look at all the new stuff that is out there, check the population models and make whatever improvement to the information and come back with more recommendations of where we go from here.

It all started to occur in the '70s, and by the '90s biologists were noticing some pretty serious damage to the habitat on the breeding colonies at several locations in the Arctic. They were getting together at various conferences and realized that they were seeing the same thing.

It is based on very strong science, it is all recorded and reviewed by other scientists and endorsed. That is very important element for all conservation. In this case it really is clear.

We concluded that these geese populations were growing out of control.

There was finally an act of Congress signed by President Clinton with no opposition. Not a single congressman or senator opposed it.

The average adult goose is over 7 years old. It has been hunted for six months a year its whole life, so it has seen decoy spread every day for seven years. They pretty well understand ... they don't go into decoys very easy. They have had a thousand days where they have flown out from their roost and been exposed to decoy spreads. We have changed the goose. This is a more wary goose than we had 10 years ago.

This is likely to be continued to be offered for the immediate foreseeable future. We hope it is not permanent; we hope we can get it under control.