Currently a variety of hunts are open across the Kenai Peninsula, including Black Bear hunting.
Area biologist with the Department of Fish and Game Jeff Selinger said this year it seems black bear hunt numbers are down.
Selinger: “We were harvesting about 600 a year there for a few years, last spring we didn’t have a very good spring for bear hunting, so numbers were down again a little bit there, so we’ll just have to see where that pans out by the end of the year, I think we’re going to be down a little bit, we’ll probably be closer to 400 animals versus 600 animals taken but they are still our number one big game species as far as harvest is concerned on the Kenai and they have been for the last several years.”
He said a majority of the harvests are from South of Kachemak Bay and out of Seward along the coasts.
Selinger: “It’s been quite an increase of people taking charters out to target those animals, and we’re just starting up a study on the black bears down south of Kachemak Bay, just looking at population demographics, where bears are being harvested, what’s the genetic pool that they are coming from, is it starting to impact that population down there.”