NationStates Jolt Archive

I thought this news interesting enough to pass along:
VANCOUVER (CP) - A conservation group has joined with several B.C. First Nations to curb trophy hunting on a 20,000-square-kilometre portion of the central coast.

But they need the B.C. government's co-operation for their bold initiative to actually work. And while it aims to bar foreign hunters from junketing to the B.C. wilderness to stalk grizzly bears, wolves and other carnivores, it won't stop provincial residents from making trophy kills.

The Raincoast Conservation Society, along with five coastal First Nations, confirmed Tuesday they've purchased the provincially issued commercial trophy-hunting licence owned by Raincoast Outfitters Ltd. for $1.35 million.

The region, about 150 kilometres long stretching from Cape Caution in the south to Princess Royal Island, is home to grizzlies, black bears, the white kermode or so-called spirit bear, wolves, cougars, mountain goats, moose and deer.

The initiative's backers say they would like to buy up other trophy-hunting licences to extend the ban along the northwest B.C. coast, including the Queen Charlotte Islands, known by aboriginals as Haida Gwaii.
http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=news_home&articleID=2118480&lid=hp2

I'd heard a number of different proposals to this...but the 'buying up of licenses' seems the one most likely to work. I think it's a fantastic idea...though it might be a bit costly (I'm not actually sure what the licenses cost in BC). But these kinds of efforts are so volatile in BC, and cause so much resentment...they've been trying to stop logging and other development in the Great Bear Rainforest for years, but so much of the economy in that region is based on primary resources...people see it as an attack on their livelihoods. It's not meant that way, but it's hard to believe it, when conservation efforts actually impact your paycheck. I like the idea that they are trying to implement a new sort of eco-tourism to help support conservation efforts...but that still isn't going to sit well with third generation loggers...what...are they going to train to be tour guides? I hope they'll consider it at least....these things have gotten violent before.

I've been to places in Northern Ontario, where you get to stay for a month in a great place, and hunt and fish and hang out.

It's really nice, and the food is great, and the area is beautiful. You pay out the nose for anything you kill, even if it's only a fish. If that resort didn't offer the hunting and fishing, no one would be there.

I don't hunt animals I can't eat - so I don't go looking for bears. I am of the opinion that if you like to hunt animals for fun, you should be required to use aboriginal weapons, such as a spear.

Had a good amount of fish and deer meat wrapped up and sent home to my freezer. I don't see the killing going on at a rate that would depopulate the wild - it's all based on a limited number of permits.

I've been to places in Northern Ontario, where you get to stay for a month in a great place, and hunt and fish and hang out.

It's really nice, and the food is great, and the area is beautiful. You pay out the nose for anything you kill, even if it's only a fish. If that resort didn't offer the hunting and fishing, no one would be there.

I don't hunt animals I can't eat - so I don't go looking for bears. I am of the opinion that if you like to hunt animals for fun, you should be required to use aboriginal weapons, such as a spear.

Had a good amount of fish and deer meat wrapped up and sent home to my freezer. I don't see the killing going on at a rate that would depopulate the wild - it's all based on a limited number of permits.
I've said it many times, but it bears repeating: Trophy hunting should be outlawed. One way to compromise between the big bucks you yanks bring into Canada when you hunt (we saw Texans spending over $15,000 US in Inuvik to go hunt caribou) is to ensure that you either hunt as you do...keeping the meat and making us of it...or that those hunters out for trophy hunting are responsible for the cost of cutting and wrapping the rest of the carcass for distribution. Hunting carnivores shouldn't be allowed, period. Not unless a cull is necessary. And don't count on permit limits to enforce conservation...like anything else that involves money, corruption abounds. It certainly isn't conservationists setting the limits...it's fat cats with personal stake in the money being brought in by them.

But this is more than just a hunting issue. The Great Bear Rainforest is being exploited in so many ways, to the detriment of the aboriginals in the area who have such close ties to that land. It's an economic versus cultural issue more than just a hunting versus conservation one.

I've said it many times, but it bears repeating: Trophy hunting should be outlawed. One way to compromise between the big bucks you yanks bring into Canada when you hunt (we saw Texans spending over $15,000 US in Inuvik to go hunt caribou) is to ensure that you either hunt as you do...keeping the meat and making us of it...or that those hunters out for trophy hunting are responsible for the cost of cutting and wrapping the rest of the carcass for distribution. Hunting carnivores shouldn't be allowed, period. Not unless a cull is necessary. And don't count on permit limits to enforce conservation...like anything else that involves money, corruption abounds. It certainly isn't conservationists setting the limits...it's fat cats with personal stake in the money being brought in by them.

But this is more than just a hunting issue. The Great Bear Rainforest is being exploited in so many ways, to the detriment of the aboriginals in the area who have such close ties to that land. It's an economic versus cultural issue more than just a hunting versus conservation one.


Oh, I think that trophy hunting of wolves and bears should be allowed, as long as you are forced to use a hand held spear and a knife, and do not have a backup guide with a gun. It should be a very dangerous "sport" - with a good risk of being killed by an animal in the middle of nowhere.

I never keep horns or fur - I don't make jackets and I don't hang things on my walls.

Aboriginals should be allowed to continue to hunt whatever they hunt now, and hunt in the modern manner they use now. But outsiders should be forced to use a spear if they are going after grizzly.

I can see it now... Sinuhue sees another idiot wander off into the woods with his spear... and starts taking bets on whether the idiot will make it back or not.

I can see it now... Sinuhue sees another idiot wander off into the woods with his spear... and starts taking bets on whether the idiot will make it back or not.Now THAT would be sport hunting!!!!

Now THAT would be sport hunting!!!!
I find that the only animals that have a chance against hunters with rifles are Cape Buffalo and hippo. At one time, hunting Cape Buffalo with a high powered rifle was a 50/50 proposition, which I feel is fair.