Speak Up for Wildlife<\/a>,\u00a0opposes the bear hunt. \u201cWell, ultimately, it\u2019s a tragedy. It\u2019s a failing of the FWC to properly look at the science, analyze the population figures and come up with a course of action,\u201d O\u2019Neal said.<\/p>\nFWC officials said they received more than 163,000 applications, with over 49,000 of them from the central region. The quota allocated by FWC to the Central Bear Harvest Zone was 18 permits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re about to see another nightmare. It\u2019s hard to say, but I\u2019ve seen it. I was there in 2015,\u201d O\u2019Neal said, referring to the last bear hunt which ended early after the quota was reached in the first two days.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This time a total of 172 permits statewide were made available through a random lottery system. Applicants 18 years old and older could apply as many times as they wanted, paying $5 per application.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neal said thousands of bear-hunt opponents, including some members of their organization, came up with an idea to spare some bears \u2014 to enter the lottery to secure permits but not use them.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, I have a lot of people who never thought they were going to be licensed hunters who are now licensed hunters and have entered the lottery and sequestered between 40 and 50,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But others, like Volusia County resident and hunter Daniel Lavesque, were hoping to get a permit for this bear hunt.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was intending on the bear hunt in 2015, and they closed it before I had a chance to hunt. So, I was hopeful that I would have the opportunity,\u201d Lavesque said.<\/p>\n
Despite submitting three entries for the hunt, he still wasn\u2019t able to secure a permit. \u201cI didn\u2019t win, I don\u2019t even know where I ended up down the line,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lavesque said FWC should draw again and make it mandatory for those who got the permits to participate in the bear hunt.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the person that decided to buy bear tags for no other reason to save a bear. There\u2019 are plenty of hungry kids in the world and there\u2019s plenty of charity organizations. I would put my money there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The commission said the goal of the regulated bear hunt is to manage population growth rates in areas with the largest bear subpopulations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a whole lot of bears in the state of Florida. This hunt, so everybody is clear, is insignificant to the bear population, it\u2019s not going to control the bear population. But it will give outdoorsmen and hunters alike the opportunity hunt these animals that they have not been able to hunt in I don\u2019t even know how long,\u201d\u00a0Lavesque said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
FWC said only one nontransferable permit would be issued per person, and permits cost $100 for residents and $300 for nonresidents. The goal is to ensure permits go to those who plan to hunt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to put the permits in the hands of those who will use them for hunting. We have heard that some groups opposing the hunt might potentially purchase permits. We have not seen this having an impact on previous hunts. We will collect and evaluate data that will be used to shape future hunts, such as the number of unused permits and hunter success,\u201d FWC Communications Director Shannon Knowles said in an email.\u00a0<\/p>\n
FWC officials say the money paid for permits will be used for conservation. O\u2019Neal said they\u2019ll continue to push for ways to manage the bear population that don\u2019t involve hunting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a plea to the FWC. You have $817,000. Solve the problem. You know how to do it. Garbage management. It\u2019s not rocket science. Go back to the drawing board. Solve the problem,\u201d O\u2019Neal said.<\/p>\n
The bear hunt will take place from Dec. 6 – Dec. 28. Unused tags must be returned to the FWC 14 days after the hunt ends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0\u00a0For the first time in 10 years, commissioners with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1011,2967,274,1190,766,115,772,139,141,140,277,278,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-3520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-app-human-interest","9":"tag-app-public-safety","10":"tag-app-top-stories","11":"tag-human-interest","12":"tag-massiel-leyva","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-on-air-ticker-article","15":"tag-orlando","16":"tag-orlando-headlines","17":"tag-orlando-news","18":"tag-public-safety","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}