[Dave B.]

They've been keeping track of them for many years now as part of the Opening Day Angler Surveys. I don't recall exactly what year they began but I'm going to say about 9-10 years ago was when I first saw that item on the survey documents I receive. Sadly they are still a federally protected species. It's likely going to be the a similar scenario to what occurred with the Canada geese wherein they retain the designation far too long to the point where the feds have to go to the far opposite end of the situation and open an overly liberal season to attempt to correct their oversight problem.