"wildfed" tv show maine harlequin?

[darkvibe]

A friend contacted the Wildfed show and received a very forthcoming response from the host that someone in their party harvested the duck and they were not aware. The host took full responsibility for it as it is his show and apologized and was embarrassed that it made air. He indicated that they are cooperating with the Maine warden service and working with producers to remove the footage so as to not seem to support illegal harvest. Seems unthinkable to a veteran waterfowler but this guy says in the show he was being lead by some supposed veteran sea duck hunters and it must have been honest mistake or they wouldn’t have put the evidence on TV.

I got the same message from the guys account in response to a comment I made about it on the wildfed page.

 

[Rubberhead]

This whole thing highlights a point I make often...I absolutely hate any commercialization of waterfowling in the US. Duck hunting as we know it, will not survive it...this is just a tiny, tiny piece of the many examples...

 

[tgs]

I didn't see the episode of Wildfed, have never even heard of the show, but did hear about the Harli shooting at a local NWTF event last weekend. The location of where they were is a pretty popular Harlequin hangout, at least to some of us. So popular, I stopped guiding there due to the harlequins buzzing the spread. Not sure who the veteran sea duckers were but I'd love to see that episode. Rumor is a mere warning was issued and that was it. I was curious how shooting a federally protected bird only gets a warning but I guess it is only state protected according to this from the Maine Gov site, "It was listed as threatened in Maine in 1997. It was a candidate for federal listing in the early 1990s, and in 1998 was petitioned for federal listing. The proposed listing was determined to be unwarranted because of lack of information about movements between the three Atlantic breeding populations"

We do have incidental take laws for barrows, as we have populations of those too, but for not harlequins.

 

[Grif]

That’s a huge part of their problem. Easy to kill. Basically can use any sea worthy boat. Black jugs for decoys. They always show up around oct here. The guys around here love shooting at them at 50 plus yards so there’s plenty of shooting n cripples. Guys literally take a case of shells per 2 guns here locally. All to throw em in trash cans. Honestly pretty sad. Also most of the sea duck hunters I kno are also the ones that couldn’t identify a swan coming into decoys and also dumb enough to post an illegally shot bird on internet.

Did you say "easy to kill"?

 

[Westmichwtrdog]

I believe this episode is on tonight. Steve

 

[creedsduckman]

I believe this episode is on tonight. Steve

It was. I dvr'd it to skim through out of curiosity. It was very edited and had a disclaimer at the beginning that I don't recall seeing the first time.

 

[Wanderer]

Still there in a couple of shots if you know to look for him!

Hope some good comes out of the ordeal for all involved!

Will