The first concrete sign that something was dramatically wrong with the Chesapeake Bay's Canada goose population came 1,600 miles to the north. The largest population of wintering birds is found on the Eastern Shore.
Biologists see the moratorium as the quickest, and surest, way to stem the decline.
We knew we had to do something pretty restrictive. The situation is a dramatic turnaround from only 15 years ago when the population peaked at about 1 million geese. That followed a period when their main wintering ground moved from the Carolinas to the Bay region. Managers responded by expanding the hunting season in the late 1970s. But in the mid-1980s, a series of harsh winters set in, taking an additional toll on the geese.