NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana’s four coastal Wildlife Management Areas, including the Atchafalaya Delta WMA in St. Mary Parish, were popular destinations for opening day of the 2018-19 waterfowl hunting season Nov. 10 in Louisiana.

One of them, Pass-a-Loutre WMA, gave up an average of 4.1 ducks per hunter, according to Shane Granier, biologist manager who oversees coastal WMAs for the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Atchafalaya Delta WMA, the favorite of Teche Area waterfowlers for the past four decades, had nearly four times more duck hunters than Pass-A-Loutre WMA but the average harvest was considerably less at 1.7 ducks per duck hunter, Granier said in his Hunter Participation / Harvest Summary report filed Monday.

Overall, Granier and his staff surveyed 675 duck hunters on opening day across the four coastal WMAs. The average kill per hunter was 1.8, he said in his report, which is the second-lowest average on opening day for those public areas since 2009-10, when 772 duck hunters averaged 1.3 ducks.

The highest opening day total for the four WMAs was 2014-15, when 1,303 duck hunters harvested an average 4.1 ducks.

The 2017-18 opening day numbers were 894 and 3.1. Others were 1,023 and 3.8 in 2011-12; 1,254 and 3.5 in 2013-14; 3.4 and 758 in 2010-11; 2.3 and 971 in 2016-17; 2.2 and 1,024 in 2015-16; 2.1 and 1,316 in 2013-14, and 1.3 and 772 in 2009-10.

On opening day at the Atchafalaya Delta WMA, the LDWF personnel checked 297 duck hunters who killed an average of 1.7 ducks per hunter There were an estimated 570 waterfowlers on the public area and they harvested an estimated 975 ducks, according to the LDWF personnel.

Most of the ducks there were shot down on the Wax Lake Delta, where many of the duck hunters from Franklin to New Iberia hunt when they venture to the Atchafalaya WMA. Granier estimated there were an estimated 378 duck hunters on the Wax Lake Delta and they killed an estimated 670 ducks.

Forty-four percent of the ducks harvested on the Atchafalaya WMA were blue-winged teal. Twenty-one percent of the downed ducks were green-winged teal, 13 percent were gadwall, 4 percent were mallards and scaup, 2 percent were canvasbacks, shovelers, redheads and wigeons.

Pass-a-Loutre WMA, meanwhile, attracted 80 duck hunters who were surveyed and killed an average of 4.1 ducks per hunter. Granier and his staff estimated there were 165 waterfowlers there and they killed an estimated 679 ducks.

At Pointe-aux-Chenes WMA on opening day, LDWF personnel checked 288 duck hunters who killed 1.2 ducks per hunter. There were an estimated 485 waterfowlers on that public area and they harvested 570 ducks.

Salvador WMA was used slightly by duck hunters. The LDWF personnel checked 10 duck hunters who averaged 0.6 ducks per hunter. An estimated 30 hunters killed an estimated 19 ducks on Salvador WMA.