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Eider Harvest Study: What the Numbers Say

| by Topics: Hunting, Waterfowl Harvest

eider-harvest-study

Do you love hunting Eiders in Massachusetts? We’ve got some good news for you….

At WaterfowlChoke we love everything about hunting ducks, whether it’s making the perfect shot, learning to call effectively, or buying the best choke tube, we want to help people in every aspect of duck hunting – so we know as well as anyone how important harvesting Eiders is.

Harvesting a Eider is the most iconic achievement in duck hunting, especially when it’s a memorable hunt or you get a banded bird. However, there are a few people who have made harvesting Eiders their specialty, and you’d be surprised just how many Eiders have been harvested in America since the turn of the millennium.

So, to look deeper into the Eider harvest, we decided to do some research into just how many Eiders are harvested each year and what areas shoot the most – here’s what we found.

For this research, we looked at the adaptive harvest reports for each state in 2021 in the United States, to reveal which American states are best for harvesting Eiders.

Where are the Most Eiders Being Shot?

We discovered that hunters who hunt Eiders in Massachusetts are the most likely to harvest the most amount of Eiders per hunt, followed by in New York and Maine. Since 2021, those in Massachusetts have harvested 6,339 Eiders, whilst in New York and Maine, hunters have harvested 4,022 and 2,167, respectively.

The five states that harvested the most Eiders, and the number each state has recorded for 2021, are as follows:

  1. Massachusetts – 6,339
  2. New York – 4,022
  3. Maine – 2,167
  4. Rhode Island – 1,878
  5. Alaska – 472

(Sources: USFWS Harvest Survey)

The data showed that the Eider hunters sticking to the rivers and bays of Massachusetts are most likely to harvest a Eider. Shockingly, Alaskan Eider hunters have fallen drastically on the harvest list and you have to wonder if they will even see a Eider on the average duck hunt.

More Waterfowl Harvest Studies
Harvest studies are conducted by the USFWS each year in the U.S. to gauge the number of ducks and geese that are taken by hunters. This aids in setting bag limits and managing migratory bird populations from year to year. Below are the most common migratory species with available harvest data. Please click the links below to see how many birds were harvested and where.

The Most Common Shotgun Used for Harvesting Eiders

When looking at which shotgun people had used to harvest a Eider, the 12-gauge was revealed as the most commonly used shotgun, with over 80% of hunters choosing it. A 20 gauge and a 10 gauge shotgun rounded off the top three, with 20 gauge being the second most popular.

The 28 gauge came in fourth place with 12% usage, while the 410 bore came fifth, with 5%.

We also delved into which month people had been harvesting the most Eiders, and discovered that December was the most common, with 43% of Eiders harvested. The months of November (33%) and January (24%) came in second and third. This is likely due to duck season timing by state and hunter participation levels peaking at certain months.

states-that-shoot-the-most-eiders

Waterfowlchoke editors, after reviewing the data, said:

“As any duck hunter will know, harvesting Eiders is a lifetime achievement – unless you’re a well-known hunting guide, an amateur hunter with multiple limit hunts on Eiders is quite the accomplishment.

“It’s interesting to see those in Massachusetts harvesting so many Eiders – especially when the hunter participation rate is lower than many other states – you have to wonder what tactics they’re using out there on the Atlantic Flyway! We’re planning to make this research a recurring thing, so that we can track how Eider harvests in the US are changing – who knows, maybe New York will surpass Massachusetts this time next year.”

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