AK Governor just Cancelled Spring Bear
Bears
Ouch, guess arrowing a Brown Bear this Spring is not going to happen. Just announced that our Spring Bear Season is cancelled here in Alaska.
Kodiak was concerned about outsiders coming to the Island. My friends son had a Frazier Lake tag.
April Fools is such a stupid tradition. What a waste of time.
Not April fools but I think the Governor misspoke. More to come I’m sure.
I just got back from Kodiak, and the sentiment from the fish and game office was they wanted to close the season on the island to stop Coronavirus from getting there. Lots of subsistence issue in AK to just completely stop hunting.
This may be fake new, but it would not surprise me one bit if it actually happened.
Watched it on our 5pm newscast. Not fake news.
I had heard this morning on one of the conference calls that an announcement was coming regarding DNR that Gov. Dunleavy would be announcing.
Official- it on the main website under announcement s
http://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2020/04/02/watch-live-gov-dunleavy-state-officials-to-give-update-on-covid-19-and-health-mandates/
Looks legit to me. That is gonna hurt!
—Jim
It says subsistence hunts will remain open for residents. What constitutes it being a subsistence hunt vs just a “sport” hunt?
I was supposed to be in Petersburg on 4/25. We are most likely now looking at 2022. Been messing with this for a week now. Surprised that nobody said anything earlier.
I stand corrected. This is unbelievable.
The Subsistence hunts are regulated by the Federal Gov and the State cannot regulate them.
Residents, like me and many others, are federal subsistence users and the majority of us will still be able to hunt. This will really hurt the guide industry, hard.
This is not unbelievable .. there is currently a travel ban on within the State. You are not supposed to travel between towns. Only for essential business. In the Ketchikan area there are very few if any bush planes flying. Flying essential passengers only. The POW Island ferry is only running 4 days a week taking 1/4 payload to keep social spacing ... if you are arriving in Alaska from outside you must register with the State and go directly to your 14 day quarantine location upon arrival. Possible jail and / or fines for breaking the order.
For real. Hope to get my plane tickets refunded.
Some will likely disagree, but I support the Alaska Governor making that call. I look at rural Montana counties where I live. In our rural counties we are having 1 death in 6 cases, 2 deaths in 6 cases, 1 death in 5 cases. It shows how under-equiped rural areas are to handle this and how it impacts elderly populations. The last thing Alaska needs is a bunch of non-residents heading north, bringing the pox to an elderly population with lower medical infrastructure, and higher percentages of native populations that have shown lower immunities to some diseases.
Compared to all of that possible calamity, this closure really is a, "First World" problem, at least in my mind. If all of this passes and the only discomfort I would incur is the loss of a black bear hunt, I would feel guilty to escape so unscathed when so many are being impacted in such bigger ways.
I do not agree Randy. Closing this to residents as well is a very unnecessary measure. Ridiculous actually. Closing Kodiak and the Pen, understandable. Statewide closure? Unnecessary.
I was heading to AK for bears too next month. Pretty disappointed to not be able to do it especially since I gave no work now but definitely understand and agree with the call. Living on an island that is very safe from virus currently, it is making locals pretty furious that some tourist won’t stop coming despite all the restrictions we have.
It might already be too little too late. That said the last thing the state needs is for hunters or anyone from all over the world traveling to and being in contact with residents dispersed though out the state. Give it 60 days or so and Reassess.
If anyone thinks this is unbelievable they themselves have been in hibernation for the past two months. Hello!!!
Alaska already has 133 cases with 3 deaths as of April 1st.
I can understand the closure for NR's and maybe even Res's. Randy makes a good point about the isolated communities getting this from a NR or a Res and the community has limited medical resources. The choices are fly in some help or fly out the patient or don't do anything and pray.
Agree with Randy but also agree with Nick. In our rural communities the chance of spread is virtually zero....if we can keep outsiders away. When they let people travel from heavily infected areas into rural areas unfettered we have problems and will never get in front of this. Stay In your local area. Do not be traveling to hunt or fish right now. If we keep this up we will be losing elk seasons, moose seasons, deer seasons, etc. Take the hit now and save our fall.
I'm learning to shoot my longbow without ripping the Sitka N95 mask off my face.
I'm 100% on board with sensible measures to reduce human-to-human interaction or contact, including travel. Not everyone agrees with the current (and yet to happen) restrictions. Things are happening so fast that there's little time to ponder the intricacies of who gets affected by a ruling.
Good one Kevin
But I prefer the fit of the KUIU mask better
It’s Also much quieter
I been shooting my selfbows with a N95 for over a month now. Easy really, if you can learn to shoot with glasses its not a issue.
The Airlines are not giving refunds right now. They are not giving you an unlimited time to get a new replacement ticket. Al least for the moment.
No different if your driving to a hunt. yesterday they were turning Tenn plates around at KY border of guys heading to lakes fishing. KY Lake and Barkley.
My deal is will I 90 stay open to outta staters for fall hunts? I better get the 1959 Cessna rebuilt!
K
Lots more important things to worry about. Here in our little town in northeast Ohio we are seeing Covid19 deaths that should not be.... 51 years old pizza shop owner, 61 year old advertising salesman, 70 year old politician, 40 year old father of two just in the last few days.....and the list will grow. It’s no joke.
Steve, we had a 51 year old teacher here who was feeling fine in the morning and dead by the next morning. Perfectly healthy, no underlying health conditions, healthy weight, no risk factors. That opened my eyes. If you are genetically disposed to it this thing can kill you regardless of risk factors. Low percentage for sure but not much lower than the elk tags I think I have a chance of getting every year.
Hopefully some of the outfitters can find a way to recover from this. To say it'll be tough is an understatement. Sheep & Moose hunts are gonna be next.
I’m not saying it is unbelievable that they are closing bear season. I am saying it is unbelievable what is going on with this whole virus. I’ll be 52; I didn’t live thru the Great Depression...I’ve never seen our country shut down.
It’s not fake. Talked to my outfitter last nite . I’m moving my brown bear hunt to May 2021
I agree with Nick about the resident aspect. I would see no reason to close seasons for the resident. In my haste I had only thought in the terms of non-residents and the virus vectors we would represent.
I went on a brownie hunt couple years ago. Arrowed one. I had the hunt fully paid for before going. In a case where the hunts paid for but government cancels it, how are the financials sorted out?
I’m fully with Nick on this one. No reason to stop residents from hunting their backyards.
With the villages it is super easy to isolate because there are no roads! All you have to do is issue the order no travel period. Put your local village enforcer at the airstrip and send everyone back home if they land. Shut down the passenger airlines to the big villages like Kodiak, Nome, Kotz, Barrow- and for supplies set up a no contact exchange with cargo carriers.
Terrible... I'm afraid that this is just the beginning... Ed F
Hearing rumblings about a clarification coming soon, which I'd guess will allow residents to hunt this spring.
Not sure this really matters for non-residents. Alaska has had a mandatory 14 day quarantine for anyone entering their state for weeks now. The verbiage in the mandate does not allow for "I am going into the bush" as a work around.
Surprised there hasn`t been a thread on this earlier.
The quarantine order was effective March 25th and to be re-evaluated on April 21. Bear hunts are in May/June. Well, they were, that is.
Residents in Juneau & Ketchikan do not qualify as 'subsistence' as the Feds manage the subsistence regs by zip code. All other SE residents can hunt under the subsistence exemption in the closure. Very few resident hunters in SE hunt Bear anyway. The SE Black Bear hunt is mainly non-resident action.
This and the entire situation in the world really sucks. Specific to Alaska and outdoor sports, I'm more worried about the fishing season being closed to non-residents. Not because myself and a group of 8 are heading up in August but because the economic impact from that will far outweigh the impact from canceling spring bear hunts for a comparatively small number non-residents.
It's logical to think anything that necessitates travel would be antithetical to a quarantine.
This was real time air traffic earlier today......Talk about vectors. With this level of cross pollination, I’m amazed if any real level of isolation is attainable anywhere...
Im gonna say Kodiak residents do not want any off island hunters period.
I bet they get it their way too.
K~
^...It will be interesting how they word that order if it happens. There are alot of NR Coasties living there.
If you luving there for 1yr your a resident.
May not be your home of record but you are a resident.
K~
NE stopped selling out of state turkey tags and I received a "warning" email yesterday from NC fish and wildlife. Basically said that if LEO's continue to observe people not social distancing they would outlaw boating etc. They even had a how to turkey hunt while social distancing section.
Fishing season canceled in WA state etc. This thing is just getting started.
As I mentioned above, it was going to change. Governor just announced, NO CHANGE to Resident Bear Seasons. However, NON-Residents are not allowed to hunt Spring Bear this season.
(JUNEAU) — Yesterday, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game closed non-resident and resident general hunting for brown and black bear through May 31. This was done to reduce non-critical travel in an effort to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus across Alaska.
Upon further consideration, the Department has decided to rescind the resident portion of this closure. The non-resident hunts remain closed. To protect public health, resident hunters participating in spring bear hunts in Alaska are required to abide by all issued health mandates, including social distancing mandates and intrastate travel mandates.
Specific to intrastate travel mandates, all instate travel between communities is prohibited unless travel is necessary to support critical infrastructure, or for critical personal needs. General hunting has not been identified as a critical personal need. As such, all hunting activities, other than subsistence, must conform with the intrastate travel health mandate. ADF&G will be issuing additional details in the coming days regarding conduct of these hunts in context of the issued mandates.
Protection of public health is critical at this time. Abide by the issued health mandates. It is our hope to flatten the curve by keeping people hunkered down, and not traveling for non-critical reasons. We will get through this together.
I, like all of you, hope we can get control of this situation and get back to more normal lives. But until then, I ask for your patience and understanding as this situation evolves.
These are unprecedented times and we are taking uncharted steps to protect the well-being of Alaskans. I’d rather err on the side of caution and take a step too far, rather than come up short and cost fellow Alaskans their lives.
Doug Vincent-Lang Commissioner, Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Read this online: http://hunt.alaska.gov
We have community spread in AK. It's too late to shut down incoming flights from the lower 48. That ship has sailed...
At least I live in Kotz and am a "Federally Qualified Subsistence Hunter" based on my zip code, but that only counts for 23. I can still do my moose hunt and hunt bears here, but what I'm most looking forward to this year is annual sheep hunt on the other side of the state where I'm technically a sport hunter and have to take several flights to get there.
I'm really hoping all this has blown over by the end of July. I also had a float trip down the upper Noatak planned with my daughter.
I thought it would go like that. So, there wont be any travel for off islanders to hunt Brown Bear even if your a AK resident. I suppose you could try but you could be putting folks lives in danger and I cant imagine Islanders would be to happy to see folks either. Guess they would not want to CV19 on the Island population.
HH~
Just curious Ike- you have it in YOUR community? If so, how are the indigenous people coping with it? Physically and socially?
I hope this covid thing is wrapped up before fishing season but with the enormous geographic size of Alaska I could sure understand imposing travel restrictions even for residents especially to remote areas that are naturally socially distanced by hundreds of miles and probably have limited access to hospitals with ICU's. But as Americans living in a free country we just don't like to be told what to do. Which is also one reason the US so quickly passed China in the spread of the covid virus. I drove by Home Depot the other day and the parking lot looked like a Black Friday sale. Getting pansies in the flower beds by April 15 is essential.
The US passed China because China's numbers are complete BS. They sat on this thing for a couple months and downplayed the severity. The rest of the world is paying for it.
Agree on China's numbers but they also have no problem with mandatory/martial law type quarantines which aren't going to happen here. Executive orders from governors are more like suggestions.
I heard it’s been changed to now open for Alaska residents! Great news!!
We’re all looking at Outfitters right now....but it’s nearly ALL businesses. The economic impact is beyond our comprehension.
Well I sincerely hope that nobodies hunting or fishing plans are impacted by the "virus"
What a tragedy that would be
The weakness is incredible
Rut Nut, no cases in the North West Arctic Borough yet.
For now it appears to be a ridiculous decision by ADF&G to single out spring hunting. Apply the same limitations to all tourism, commercial fishing, oil and gas and any other commercial interest that is staffed with out of state commuters, then it would be fair and consistent. Right now as it stands, it appears to be an irrational and short sighted.
Yup. This sucks hopefully be there next spring. 3 years of waiting what’s another year I guess.
Every state’s goal is to flatten the curve of infections. The better that is done, the longer the infection may likely persist in a state or region. The states doing the best job of it may have longer term limits, but with the benefit of fewer deaths and reduced impact on hospitals.
Yup. What we need is an immunization ASAP.
Single out those essential and nonessential working class individuals is not what built this country. If you jump in a super cub, you take your chances. You bow hunt brown bear you, take your chances. I can go on and on. No better place to quarantine than out in the great USA outdoors. Total BS with all these rules, what we can and cannot. Just venting lost two NR spring brown bear hunters. Do you think these individuals where scared or afraid?
RK;
Can you provide a list of approved activities?
Getting together with family, friends and loved ones for a cherished activity that you may never have another opportunity to do so while practicing proper etiquette and not endangering yourself or anyone else just seems to me a normal healthy human approach.
Not much else a guy like me can do other than donate blood and stay on my property, as Robin and I did this weekend. It felt good to sweat a little while chain sawing and performing other needed labor. Never went any where, refueled at our local gas station upon return and used anti-bacterial wipes and gloves! Keeps me mentally happy and mind set is critical IMHO at this point in time.
Frank, Let me get this right, you’re telling everyone how they should live their life. I have one question for you? Do you take your family out every weekend or just because or the Coronavirus? Great for you can enjoy your family time.
Every state implemented different rules and regulations you must ahead. Hopefully this BS will end soon so everyone can get back to normal.
Nothing like spring bear.
Moran,
I am not trying to tell anyone what to do. It is just Robin and I, and yes we try to get out every weekend. If folks can properly social distance doing so, my opinion is that may be healthier for them.
All I know is...…………………………………...I'm gonna have one HELL of a "Corona-FREE" Party once all these restrictions are lifted! ;-)
Honest question. If you can drive to your hunt destination and back on the fuel you have with you, have all your supplies, then camp by yourself (or your cohort) for fourteen days, how can that not be OK?
If I can pull my trailer or boat to a place where I can social distance, and likely to the extreme, why is that wrong?
Is it ok, for say Frank Noska, to hop in his plane, land remote and hunt?
Yes Rod, all of those are fine and it’s what the majority of us are planning on doing.
"Flattening the curve" is not the right apporoach. The peak of the curve needs to be reduced, not expanding the base over time, which is what flattening the curve is basing everything from the same predictability of R0.
Changing the curve height changes the function that R0 creates. Better for everyone and the economy.
Nate,
I totally agree with you, no need for flattening the curve. Individuals with health issues are likely and should be concerned getting the virus. Let’s get back to normalcy.
Unfortunately we live in the age of "ZERO TOLLERANCE!" And most times, common sense is not factored into the equation! : (
Has anyone heard if Alaska is refunding the permit fees? I’m going to mail mine back today and see what happens.
Meetings this week, will know a bit more soon I would think.
Nick,
Are the meetings focused only on spring bear or are they starting discussions on fishing seasons?
I think they are focused on Spring Bear at the moment, but I am sure that since everything else is approaching quickly it will soon become a topic of discussion. If the travel ban is not lifted by the time fishing season gets going, I wouldn't expect to be doing much up here as a Non-Resident. We aren't far off from the start of salmon fishing.
Spring Bear Season is cancelled in my area too. shit man it was my first time,
The meeting is on Tuesday, April 14th.
Thanks for the info Jason.
https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/r..._tele_4-14.pdf
NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING OF THE ALASKA BOARD OF GAME
Notice is given that the Alaska Board of Game (Board) is callinga special meeting via teleconference on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 at 1:30 pm. Thepurpose of the special meeting is to develop board generated proposals on thefollowing topics to be scheduled for board action at a subsequent, specialmeeting. 1.) Open a spring 2021, resident and nonresident brown bearhunting season in Game Management Unit (GMU) 9 under 5 AAC 85.020; 2.) Modify 5 AAC 92.050(6) to allow the transfer of 2020 springseason drawing permits to a future year for hunting black bear in GMUs 1-3, andbrown and grizzly bear in GMUs 4, 8, 10, 14C, 22, and 26B. Action by a majority of the board members at the April 14, 2020meeting is required to develop and schedule the proposals for a future specialmeeting. Alaska Statute requires 30-days’ notice for public comment prior toboard action on any regulatory proposals the board may develop. The Board will accept written public comment for the April 14meeting, due no later than 12:00 p.m. Monday, April 13, 2020. Written commentsmay be emailed to [email protected], or faxed to(907)465-6094. The board will not be taking public testimony during theteleconference. A live audio stream of the meeting will be available at www.boardofgame.adfg.alaska.govfor the public to listen. The meeting agenda, notice, and other meeting materials will beavailable online at http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=gameboard.meetinginfo&date=04-14-2020&meeting=tele.For more information about the meeting, contact the Department of Fish andGame, Boards Support Section at (907) 465-4046. If you are a person with a disability who may need a specialaccommodation in order to participate, please contact the Boards SupportSection at (907) 465-6098 no later than 5:00 p.m. Friday, April 10, ensure thatany necessary accommodations can be provided.
/s/ April 8,2020 Kristy Tibbles, ExecutiveDirector Date Alaska Board of Game
meanwhile Kodiak is serious .... ALL persons arriving in Kodiak must quarantine.
Yep
Any isle community would be foolish not to isolate all inbound folks residents or other.
K
