The Alaska Department of Fish and Game will open the hunt Dec. 1 at 12:00 a.m. The any bull hunt in Unit 17B will remain closed. The Unit 17C portion of the hunt will also remain closed due to conservation concerns.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game will open an antlered-bull moose hunt under permit RM585 in Unit 17B for 20 days, starting December 1 at 12:00 a.m. The department issued an emergency order Tuesday to do so.
The Unit 17C portion of the registered moose hunt will remain closed due to conservation concerns. Regional Management Coordinator Todd Rinaldi says the target population for that area is low. The state has documented positive calving births, but low survival rates.
“We’ve been studying the moose in 17C for a number of years,” he said. “That’s how we were able to determine that high pregnancy and productivity is there. But we have low survival rates and it seems to be primarily attributed to brown bear predation.”
The target population for moose in 17C is between 4,900 and 6,000 moose. According to ADF&G, data collected from the last few years shows that the population is just over 4,000 animals.
The RM585 hunt in 17B is strictly limited to antlered bulls. Rinaldi said the additional 20 day opportunity is possible due to the limited number of bull moose that remain within harvest limits. The RM585 is designed to supplement fall moose hunts when possible.
“Because 17B is close to its population objective, it received less pressure," he said. "Less numbers of animals had been harvested this year in 17B relative to previous years.”
The state also anticipates a 31-day moose hunt to open in Unit 17A under permits RM575 and 576. That would start sometime between January 1 and February 28.
Permits will only be available at the Dillingham Fish & Game office and online.
Contact the author at tyler@kdlg.org or 907-842-2200
