Mr Ferguson said a survey of wild fowl populations in early 2022 hadn't highlighted concerns or threats to any single population of wild fowl in the state.

"The further advice is that wild fowl are well-dispersed around the state and therefore you're not going to see a situation during the recreational duck hunting season of populations being over-targeted," he said.

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"So the government won't be banning recreation duck hunting but we do respect different points of view on this, and that's why it's important we do have a humane and heavily regulated space here in Tasmania."

The RSPCA called for this year's duck season to be cancelled in order to assess the impact of recent wet weather on populations in South Australia and Victoria.

According to the animal rights group, duck numbers decline when water levels rise steeply, as they did in Australia last year during floods.

Many mainland ducks have sought refuge in Tasmania in recent years, as droughts dried up rivers, and later, floods also damaged their habitats.

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Barrie Tapp, a former RSPCA chief and manager of the Animal Cruelty Hotline, said he "did not understand the thinking in allowing duck hunting to continue".

"It's not a sport, it's cruel, the ducks are left there to die, and they have to eventually come around and ban it all around Australia," he said.

In preparation for what it terms "Duck Slaughter Season", Animal Liberation Tasmania said it would hold a camp for its activists starting next weekend, to prepare for protests to mark the start of the season on March 11

Three Australian states have already banned recreational duck hunting - Western Australia in 1990, NSW in 1995, and Queensland in 2005.

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