KTUU.com | Alaska's news and information source | Katmai bear hunt debate rages on

Katmai bear hunt debate rages on

by Megan Baldino
Friday, Oct. 5, 2007

KATMAI NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE, Alaska -- The hunt for bears in Katmai National Park and Preserve opened Monday, much to the anger of bear-viewing guides and biologists.

Katmai National Park encompasses more than 4 million acres and boasts one of the premier brown bear viewing areas in the world. But a legal hunt of brown bears has also taken place there every other spring and fall for decades.

The national preserve area of Katmai is approximately 423,000 acres. State biologists and National Park Service officials contend there are more than enough brown bears there to sustain a hunt; others disagree.

Brown bears are drawn to the protected areas of the park and preserve by the abundant salmon resources that local waterways provide. Narrow Cove in particular provides spectacular feeding grounds for many bears.

Ken Day owns Emerald Air Service and conducts bear viewing trips.

"These are very gentle, loving, peaceful critters," Day said.

Day and his wife, Chris Day, have made a living as tour guides each summer in Katmai for the past 20 years. But in recent years, Ken Day claims they are seeing fewer and fewer bears.

"We watched the bears here for 10 years before we ever started saying anything. It's when they started decimating the population of these bears that we started trying to get a stop to roll it back," Day said.

In the fall season of odd-numbered years and the spring season of even-numbered years, an open bear hunt takes place in the preserve, part of Game Management Unit 9C.

Hunters need a license in order to participate, but no permit to take any one bear they want, with the exception of a female with cubs.

There is no cap on the total number of bears that can be harvested in GMU-9C.

Recent numbers show the fall harvest has more than doubled from 12 bears in 2001, to 29 in 2003 and 26 in 2005.

Dr. Grant Hilderbrand, a biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, emphasized it's a legal hunt. He also said the increase in harvest is likely due to an increase in population in that area, as more and more bears are drawn to the large amount of salmon available to them.

"Our recent population estimates and our recent surveys, which were done just a few weeks ago indicate a very high density, very healthy bear population. So on a landscape scale we are very comfortable with the strategy we are employing," Hilderbrand said.

Chris Day contends that strategy is not working and has been mismanaged.

"We've seen average daily numbers of bears go from 60 to sometimes 80 bears, (down) to 10 to 15 adult bears," Day said.  

Channel 2 News arrived with the Days one day ahead of the October hunt. Our crew included bear biologist Brad Josephs and two other photographers.

While Josephs and the Days would like the hunt canceled, they know that won't happen, so instead they are pushing for a compromise. Ken Day wants the season moved back.

"I would like to see them make it a limited registration hunt and roll the season back, to Oct. 12," Day said.

The Days also said they want to see better science when it comes to the bears in Katmai.

But National Park Service spokesman John Quinley said the bear population in Katmai, including the preserve, is healthy.

"In recent surveys in August, we counted 330 bears in the preserve -- about a bear every square mile -- and that's a high density of bears. That's what the law requires. Our management aims are for a high density of bears and we think we are achieving that," Quinley said.

Hildebrand agreed and said he had every confidence in science the state and Park Service used.

"I have every confidence in the information we have, and truthfully, I wish we had this level information across the state to manage bears," Hildebrand said.

The bears are not hard to find in Katmai. One of the grizzlies came within 30 or 40 feet of our crew's tent one morning. For hunters, it's probably a good thing, but for those against the hunts, they say it's just not fair.

The Days and Josephs also claim these are some of the same bears that frequent the McNeil River Falls in the state's premiere viewing sanctuary, about 25 miles from Narrow Cove. Ken Day said the McNeil bears are a population well-habituated to human interaction.

"There is no sport in this whatsoever, no skill allowed," Day said.

Hildebrand said the hunts are not illegal.

"What they are doing, regardless of how far they are walking, it's legal."

This group of hunters declined an on-camera interview and threatened to sue us if we showed them in our story.  

Jim Hamilton owns True North Adventures and the hunting concession in Narrow Cove. He sent Channel 2 News a statement saying he places great trust in Fish and Game managers along with the state Board of Game.

The statement reads: "I am more than willing to work with them to stay within the harvest levels that will maintain a healthy population of brown bears is this hunting area ... I am wary of going to fixed allocations and permits in GMU 9 brown bear hunts for the simple reason that the present system ... works very well."

Hamilton also replied to the argument made by the Days and others regarding "fair chase" in the hunt.

"If you were to look at many drainage systems throughout the coastal brown bear habitat range, you would find many similar scenarios of large numbers of bears concentrated on feeding in nearby salmon streams. This is not unique."

Josephs said the bears in the area are not scared of humans at all.

"That bear looks at us and we aren't a threat at all," Josephs said.

A golden grizzly remained within in feet of our camp and the hunters' camp during the entire visit. Everyone kept a close eye on the bear. Josephs predicted the bear wouldn't be around camp much longer with hunters close by.

"If she were to survive she'd have cubs next year," Josephs said.

The hunt started on Monday morning at 7 a.m. Three hunting camps were set up close by, in Narrow Cove. The group closest to our camp began hunting on a knoll above their tents.

Several bears can be seen nearby, but most are sows and cubs, which can't be harvested. Across the cove were several other hunters. Gunfire begins around 8 a.m. and several bears are nearby.

We later find the hunter, harvest and more bears. The hunter will spend most of the day skinning the bear for its head and hide. The carcass can legally be left behind.

By late afternoon, the blonde grizzly continues to swim and eat nearby. She does not know it, but these are her last moments alive.

The hunters are clearly ready and when the opportunity presents itself, they shoot and kill the female.

The blonde grizzly goes down.

Josephs said the bear was not concerned with the hunters at all.

"That bear trusted us -- it trusted the hunters -- it hung out here the whole time we were here. It had no fear of us."

Fair or not, the hunt is legal.

In the end, the bear dies about 100 yards from the hunters' camp, 100 yards from our camp and just feet from where it roamed all day long. 

Hamilton also added in his statement that Monday was a sad day for him since hunters who were participating in a legal hunt had their entire experience ruined by others who chose to use illegal methods to harass and interfere with their hunt.

Hamilton claims that Josephs and the Days face criminal and civil charges for interfering in the hunt and harassment. He also said sharing the story with Channel 2 News was improper.

Channel 2 News has not received word from state authorities about any pending legal action with coverage of the hunt.

Although Fish and Game and the NPS regulate the hunt, the Alaska State Board of Game makes the rules based on proposals set forth by user groups and the public. The issue of Katmai bear hunts came up at its March 2007 meeting.

There were about five proposals to limit the hunt. The board did not take action based on information given to it by Fish and Game biologists who again said the bear population is healthy.  

The National Parks Conservation Association recently sent a letter to the NPS requesting it take action. Park Service officials agreed at the March meeting they wanted to see a limited hunt.

Contact Megan Baldino at mbaldino@ktuu.com