Former New South Wales premier Bob Carr has written to the Victorian leader, Daniel Andrews, urging him to follow his example and ban duck hunting for good.

Key points: Mr Carr banned duck hunting in NSW after he became premier in 1995

Mr Carr banned duck hunting in NSW after he became premier in 1995 He said Mr Andrews would lose "nothing politically" if he made the reform

He said Mr Andrews would lose "nothing politically" if he made the reform The authority regulating duck hunting has defended its management of the recent shooting season

"I suggested, essentially, it's not a big deal," Mr Carr said.

Mr Carr banned duck hunting in his first months as NSW premier in 1995, and said there was "no negative response".

In his July letter, he wrote that duck shooting was "not a sport and the slaying of water fowl is not a measure of human skill".

"Daniel Andrews is a very good premier," Mr Carr said.

"And my suggestion was simply that he add this to his impressive list of reforms. I'd strongly support him. And the message I've got is that he loses nothing politically by doing it."

Mr Carr was NSW premier from 1995 to 2005 and foreign minister in the Gillard government. ( AAP: Alan Porritt )

Duck hunting is banned in NSW, Queensland and Western Australia. It remains legal in Victoria, despite polls showing that a majority of Victorians oppose it.

This year's duck season went ahead despite deep concerns about the ability of Victoria's Game Management Authority to police breaches of the law.

Last year, an internal report into the authority found that breaches of hunting laws were "commonplace and widespread".

Worse, it found that the authority was "widely perceived" by both shooters and its own staff "to be unable to police [hunting laws] properly, or to punish those who break them".

Volunteer alleges illegal and cruel behaviour

This season was no better, according to one volunteer who spent this year on the wetlands with a long-lens video camera, recording hunter behaviour.

Jason* said he still saw the vast majority of shooters breaching the rules, often under the noses of the authorities.

"I've seen shooters using a live duck, a wounded duck, as live baiting with their dog," he said.

"I've seen guys, motoring around in boats, flushing the birds up so that they can shoot them, which is completely illegal."

Jason said he had reported illegal hunter behaviour to the authority but rarely heard whether a prosecution had followed. ( ABC News: Michael Barnett )

One of the recommendations of the authority's audit was to make more use of volunteers capturing bad behaviour on the wetlands.

But Jason said he and other volunteers almost never heard back from investigators.

The authority's chief executive, Graeme Ford, said in most cases there was not sufficient evidence to prosecute.

"I think we need to realise that a conviction on the wetland by a very passionate person is not necessarily the same threshold of law that we will need to hold ourselves to when we take a case to court," he said.

Duck season allowed despite population drop

The authority has also been criticised for allowing this year's restricted season to go ahead at all, in the face of dry conditions and a long-term decline in duck numbers.

The 2018 Aerial Survey of Wetland Birds in Eastern Australia — the authority's main source of data when deciding on duck season — found that "most game species abundances were well below long-term averages, in some cases by an order of magnitude".

The report's lead author, Richard Kingsford, heads the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of New South Wales.

"I've always thought that it's important to not have duck seasons when it's very dry," Dr Kingsford said.

"You've got the potential of taking ducks that would be your breeders in following years. We keep getting drier and drier years, and we've had a series of those. So it's very challenging."

Richard Kingsford's research found the numbers of some duck species was below average. ( Supplied: UNSW )

Mr Ford defends the authority's decision to allow the season to go ahead, as well as his officers' efforts at policing shooter behaviour.

"The season arrangements were contentious, but I think everyone accepted that there was a need to do that," he said.

"We didn't have too many offences committed that we detected. So the behaviour of hunters and protesters was reasonable. We thought it went quite well."

But Jason disagrees. He said it was just not possible for the authority to know what was going on.

"This doesn't change unless they've got thousands of officers out there," he said.

"There's that many wetlands out there, that many hidden spots that these guys go to — just so they don't have the authorities down their throat.

The discovery of nearly 200 dead ducks buried in pits in northern Victoria in 2017 sparked accusations hunters were exceeding their bag limits. ( Supplied: Coalition Against Duck Shooting )

"When you're out there and you're seeing these ducks wounded, dying and suffering, it's hard. I just see the whole thing as ludicrous, and outdated. And it needs to end."

A spokesperson for Daniel Andrews told the ABC the Government had "no plans to ban duck shooting".

Field and Game Australia CEO Dean O'Hara told the ABC that any illegal activity during duck hunting should be prosecuted, but he did not see the sport coming to an end.

"The passion for duck hunting or any kind of hunting in Victoria, across the nation, is part of our culture of Australians," he said.

"So I don't think it will ever go away."

*Jason's name has been changed to protect his identity.