No Florida bear hunt in 2016

After almost seven hours of comments from staff and the public on Wednesday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted 4-3 not to hold a bear hunt this year.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will listen to four proposals during a Wednesday meeting in Eastpoint, which is in the Florida Panhandle.

Last year’s bear hunt, which was scheduled to be a week long, only last two days after thousands of hunters met the hunting quota.

The bear hunt discussion started at about ten a.m., and the final decision was pronounced at about 8.15 p.m. Eastpointe’s high school received more than 100 people to decide Florida’s black bear’s fate.

Commissioners affirmed moreover that even if human-bear conflicts are the main point to take into consideration, last year’s hunt resolution did not solve the problem. Efforts to reduce encounters with humans should be limited to educating the public and taking better care of garbage, a temptation for roaming bears, they said.

“We went 20 years without a hunt, had one last year”, added Commissioner Bo Rivard, who acknowledged that the 2015 hunt wasn’t flawless.

“You are trying to balance society with a growing bear population”.

This robust body of science clearly supports that Florida’s comprehensive approach to bear management – which includes hunting – is both effective and sustainable.

Fleming even said that she has a hunch that next year, the commissioners will be determined to plan a hunt season. “The October bear hunt targeted bears in the woods, not the problem bears”.

At present, the state estimates its black bear population at 4,350. Local governments that have an ordinance requiring trash and other bear attractants to be secured will receive at least 60 percent of the funding. When this happens, black bears associate people with food and can lose their fear of humans.

Officials in several counties in Florida, including Seminole and Volusia Counties, have passed bear-hunting bans, although it’s unclear if that would stop bear hunting in those counties.

Bear hunting advocates cited increased interactions with humans and also that they had become nuisances by getting into garbage.