Fewer geese on the Y-K Delta, and a proposal to let hunters take fewer

Alaska wants hunters in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta to take fewer white-fronted geese — a proposal that matters because of where it lands.

Game Management Unit 18, the stretch of Bering Sea coast from Cape Romanzof to Cape Newenham, is one of the most important breeding and staging grounds these geese have. Now state wildlife managers are proposing to cut the daily bag limit there from 10 birds to 6, and possession from 30 to 18.

The reason is the birds themselves. The Pacific Flyway Council, which recommended the cut, points to recent declines in the population and increased harvest. It's a notable turn: as recently as 2014, the state was raising goose limits here because the population could support it. The direction has reversed.

The Y-K Delta is a predominantly Yup'ik region where geese have long been a staple food and part of the season's rhythm, so a tighter limit isn't an abstraction — it touches households that hunt to fill freezers. Hunters and others affected have until Aug. 5 to weigh in with Fish and Game before the change is finalized.