Florida hunters loved the state’s 2015 bear hunting season.
In fact, they may have loved it a little too much.
The black bear hunt, which the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission had scheduled to last a week in October 2015, was expected to hit its cap of 320 kills over the seven-day period. Instead, hunters killed 298 in just two days — prompting the FWC to call off the hunt Sunday, Oct. 25, 2015.
“We started this with harvest objectives that were very conservative and very mindful that we were doing this for the first time in 21 years, and there were uncertainties,” Executive Director Nick Wiley said at a news conference.
The decision to go ahead with the hunt was popular among hunters, who bought 3,700 permits leading up to the first day of the season. There were 207 bears killed Friday, Oct. 23, 2015.
It was also controversial, drawing the ire of conservationists from all over the state. This year, as the FWC made plans to bring the bear hunt back from Monday, Oct. 24, through Sunday, Oct. 30, protests were held in the Tampa Bay area and other parts of the state.
Senators tried to pass the Florida Black Bear Habitat Restoration Act, SB 1096, which would have changed the rules of the hunting season, but the bill died Friday, March 11.
The protestors got their wish Wednesday, June 22, when the FWC announced it would cancel the 2016 bear season and focus on other bear management efforts.
“Although hunting has been demonstrated to be a valuable tool to control bear populations across the country it is just one part of FWC’s comprehensive bear management program,” Wiley said in a release. “I am proud of our staff who used the latest, cutting-edge, peer-reviewed science to develop a recommendation for our commissioners to consider. Our agency will continue to work with Floridians, the scientific community and local governments as our focus remains balancing the needs of Florida’s growing bear population with what’s best for families in our state.”
The FWC noted that canceling the season gave the organization more time to develop other bear management efforts and that $825,000 has been invested in the bear management program for such purposes.
On its website, the FWC states the Black Bear Management Program trained 1,600 local responders to deal with bear attacks, helped develop bear-resistant trash cans and got the group moving on a plan to protect 185,000 acres of bear-populous land, among other things.
While the 2016 season’s cancelation was set in stone, the FWC did leave the door open for the bear hunting season to make a comeback in 2017, calling it a potential “important conservation activity” to keep bear populations in check. The group stated that data collected from 2015 will allow it to determine where to focus such future hunts.
For additional information regarding Florida’s black bear hunting seasons, visit ow.ly/t03m305hrYP.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.