I eat both wild ducks and geese. There are several species of duck that I don't eat. I don't shoot those species, unless I need to freeze birds for retriever training.
As to the decline of waterfowling, I have two thoughts.
1. Modern archery hunting created many more deer hunting days. Prime waterfowl hunting hours overlap with prime deer hunting hours. Whitetail deer populations have been healthy and in many cases increasing. Waterfowl populations continue to fluctuate by species and flyway. Residential development has negatively effected waterfowl hunting areas to a much greater degree than it has whitetail archery hunting areas. I wouldn't be surprised to see a correlation between a rise in archery hunting for whitetails with a decline in waterfowling.
2. Duck hunting is sort of a younger man's game and these days, most younger men are pussies.
