Why do people hunt?
February 18, 2010 by CVNews
Filed under Business, Environment, Feature stories, Recreation
Guide Outfitters Association of British Columbia.
Who are guide outfitters?
Currently there are 233 licensed guide outfitters in BC who directly employ over 2,000 people and generate over $120 million annually to the economy of British Columbia. The guide outfitting industry is an important contributor to the health and well being of rural economies.
Guide outfitters are the founders of the tourism industry and an important part of the outdoor heritage of British Columbia. Our clients spend more, per day, per capita, than any other visitor to our province.
Guide outfitters are committed to sustainable wildlife management and habitat conservation. They are stewards of the land who have a profound understanding of the wildlife and its habitat. The big-game populations in BC are healthy and growing due, in part, to science-based wildlife management policies that were developed by government in cooperation with guide outfitters.
Why do people hunt?
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Cultural reasons
Since the Hudson’s Bay Company was established in Canada in 1670, Canadians have hunted and trapped as a way of life. Hunting is part of our outdoor heritage. In British Columbia we have a legislated right to hunt and fish.
Today, many people hunt for sustenance reasons, enjoying the opportunity to provide their families with inexpensive organic food. Hunting is a healthy activity that allows outdoor enthusiasts to experience our beautiful province.
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Wildlife management
To have a balanced ecosystem we must manage bears as we manage all other species. Just as it is irresponsible to let forest fires to burn uncontrolled, it is also irresponsible to allow wildlife to exceed their carrying capacity and die from starvation or disease. It is documented that as the bear populations in the province increase so do the incidents of human conflict.
In National Parks, where hunting is prohibited, animals have lost their wariness and have become habituated to people. These controlled environments demonstrate that grizzly bear populations have lower survival rates in parks than in areas where grizzly bears are hunted. In the United States, where grizzly bears are protected, the animal’s survival rates are the same as they are in Canada’s National Parks.
Who pays for conservation?
According to the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, “Since the inception of our work in 1981, the Foundation and its predecessors have invested over $120 million in over 2000 projects across BC. Most of this work would never have happened without the funding commitment that the anglers, hunters, trappers and guide-outfitters of BC have made to conservation in this province.” Without hunters who would have paid for the $7 million DNA study that was done to confirm the grizzly bear population estimate in BC?
Wildlife are a highly renewable resource and an important source of revenue for government. Bear populations have continued to expand as the bear viewing industry and guide outfitting industry share this valuable resource. There is a dramatic difference in the fees paid to government between the two industries:
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Guide Outfitting
$2,210 (tags $1030/licenses $180/royalties $1,000)/10 day hunt = $221 client/day
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Wildlife viewing
$4.00 client/day (commercial recreation rental fee)
2010 Bear Statistics
Black Bear:
- Population Estimate: 120,000 to 160,000
- Current harvest rate: 2 to 3%
- Sustainable human-caused mortality rate: 8% (maximum mortality rate from all human-related causes)
- Type of hunting season in BC: general open season
- Human conflict: average of 665 bears per year destroyed
Grizzly Bear:
- There is no open season on grizzly bears anywhere in the province of BC
- The grizzly bear hunt is one of the most controlled and intensively managed hunts on the planet.
- Type of hunting season in BC: residents are on Limited Entry Hunting and guide outfitters on quota. Successful hunters produce the bear for Compulsory Inspection.
- Population Estimate: 16,000 to 17,000
- Current harvest rate: (less than) 2%
- Sustainable human-caused mortality rate: 6% (maximum mortality rate from all human-related causes)
- Human conflict: average of 53 bears per year destroyed
According to the province of British Columba, hunters harvested less than 300 grizzly bears in 2009. This represents ~1.75% of the estimated grizzly bear population of ~17,000. The provincial government considers this a conservative population estimate and an extremely conservative harvest rate.
Surrey
February 16, 2010
Guide Outfitters Association of British Columbia
The guide / outfitting / hunting industry pays way more into government coffers than eco-tourists do – and thus the hunters become the good guys?
Apparently morality and compassion are not part of the equation here. Isn’t excluding morality from the issue the same thing as acting immorally? I think so.
Nevertheless, this association does make one very interesting point. Many bears are killed due to human conflict (approx 700 per year), not just by hunters. They are talking about all those black bears who get shot in cities and towns simply because they are there and people are afraid of them. Maybe they are into the garbage bins or whatever.
Now THIS is just as important an issue as hunters killing bears. Why are we just sitting by and letting municipal animal control officers and provincial conservation officers kill bears who in most cases probably don’t need to be killed? I think that is more irresponsible even than the big-ego trophy hunter. At least he is proud of his trophy. But you cannot say that much for the killers of bears who innocently walk into town.
This is the disgusting side of the issue that ecologists have turned a blind eye to. But we need to open our eyes and see that too, not just trophy hunters. If we really care about the bears, we will deal with both problems. But if we only want to promote our own animal or ecology protection organizations and jobs, then this big drama about trophy hunters is a lie. It is selectively ignoring something even more senseless right in our own backyards that we have the immediate power to do something about.
I agre 100% with Shanna, well said!
Man, has polluted the earth, our oceans are dying, our atmosphere is polluted, and man is even polluting space. If man had kept their, God Dammed hands off our wild life, they regulate themselves. Our wild salmon, are diseased, by, salmon farms. To open hunting on the beautiful Spirit Bear, is, disgusting, and all for nothing other, than greed. It is hard enough for the people in BC, to survive, so, now they will start, killing off our wild life, and they can’t shoot back.
Which came first:
People fishing for salmon,
or,
People farming salmon?
You can’t blame trying to alleviate a problem for causing the problem in the first place.
I hope you are taking a deep breath for every comma you type.
The care of our wild life, should be regulated by, the First Nations people. They know exactly how mother nature works. They have, told and told, what is happening, because, they live, side by side, with nature, and have a far better understanding, than we do. However, man is the most destructive animal on earth, and nothing is safe from humans.
Actually Marilyn, over the years and through many different venues of interrelationships with indan bands up and down the coast, – I have noticed that that group, as a group ,have been one of the worst stewards of nature on and off their respective reserves.
It has been evident in Washington and Alaska states, it has been evident on Vancouver Island and up the west coast from Vancouver to the Alaskan panhandle. And the tribes in the interior and Cariboo are no different.
Some individuals are very concerned and conscious of what can and cannot be done for the environment, but the majority, I’m sorry, but they are not The White Knight on a Big Horse Charger better than the rest of the world.
Some are aware, most are not. As to majority of individuals that are non native, I would venture to say we tend to be very cognizant of the environment.
Sorry, but the natives are not lily white nor are white jet black.
There are good in the natvie communities and there are bad. There is great greed in the native communities and there is the same in the non native communities.
Linda, your words below are quoted and a glass half full rather than empty type of observation below::
Man, has polluted the earth, – we have been doing that since we learned to walk on two legs and pee in our own back yard, until we learned better
our oceans are dying, – not likly but they might ,repeat, might be stressed in some, repeat, some, areas. Oceans are so vast, it is going to take a lot more than what we have done to kill the oceans – but we are learning
our atmosphere is polluted, – in some areas they are but far cleaner than what our ansestors accomplished – we are learning
and man is even polluting space. – polluting hardly, littering some times
If man had kept their, God Dammed hands off our wild life, they regulate themselves. – strange, but even cave man needed to kill wildlife to survive as did the native indians throughout the world – sorry but that is a basic human and animal instinct – survival
Our wild salmon, are diseased, by, salmon farms. – unfortunatley that appears to be true, but then there are many and unknown factors in the demise of wild salmon and not just sea lice is the cause. Again, we are learning
To open hunting on the beautiful Spirit Bear, is, disgusting, – does not happern Flat out Does not happen
and all for nothing other, than greed. and survival of the species. Salmon farms are a means of providing protein and employment So is reindeer herd farming and cattle farming and oyster farms and and and
It is hard enough for the people in BC, to survive,
– it is not hard to survive Get some education into something that will benefit the individual and then the individual will benefit society. Education, once you get it, you always have it.
Once you have it, everything is easier. Once you have eduction, all things are easier, more valued, greater $’s in pocket better life style and greater opportunity to contribute to society and the down trodden.
All things are possible with greater education