Moose Hunting licenses down.

[Peter Emberley]

A decrease in 2500 licenses is good news. A shorter season is also good news.
In my opinion it was very short of what is needed.
Licenses shoud be cut back to 2010 numbers. This was before Sopac helped government with the moose management plan.
There is no mention of any further science being done. No dedicated wildlife division staff being rehired to do the much needed science on our moose.
No mention of the jaw bone study.
No mention of the effects of Johns disease on moose numbers.
Why are there so many dry cows this fall? The minister dropped enough licenses in a show of support that he is listening but Not enough to upset Sopac. No comitment to science by the minister.

Don't pat ourselves on the back just yet. The moose herd is far from protected.

Lets look at the cuts this way. Area A has 700 licenses. So last year it had a 50% succsess rate. 350 moose taken. This year that number drops by 100. So this year there 600 licenses. 350 are killed. Yet the population of that area continues to decline.
My point more needs to be done. Science is a big part of that.