Members of the Mid-Lower Yukon Fish and Game Advisory Committee agreed with a proposed nonresident hunt for antlerless moose on Thursday night.
The hunt, which would begin next winter, would start December 1, end March 15, and is not for the entirety of Unit 18. Phillip Perry with the state's Fish and Game Department explains:
“It’s only for a portion of Unit 18, so it’s Unit 18 remainder, which is basically the Yukon River drainage, the coastal area, and everything north of, and including, the upriver part of the Johnson. It’s a big, big area with a lot of moose," Perry said.
Perry says that the proposal was brought forward by a nonresident who lived here earlier and wanted an opportunity to do subsistence, although other people from out-of-state could make use of this as well.
“I could use my dad as an example, who lives in Colorado. If he wants to come up next December, he could come up and get a nonresident hunting license and go shoot a cow or an antlerless bull," Perry said.
The idea was concerning to some, who called into the meeting saying that they didn’t want outsiders taking their subsistence animals. But Perry says that trophy hunting would be out of the question, because this is not an antlered hunt.
“I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here predicting that there will be a few people who use this, but it’s not going to be a flood of people that show up," Perry said.
The bag limit would be one antlerless moose per hunter, and the hunt would have to be reapproved for 2018 and every following year.
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