Goose Season Blocked

Hunting

A one-year moratorium has been imposed on Canada geese hunting in East Coast states, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced.

The first-ever closure was based on the annual survey of breeding pairs of migrant Canada geese. The study found only 29,000 pairs, 27 percent below last year’s estimate of 40,000 and less than a third of 1993 counts.

The closure could be the death knell for guides in Maryland, where goose hunting once was estimated to be a $40 million industry.