The Chilkat Valley moose hunt is closing Monday night, more than a week ahead of schedule. The hunt was successful, and the quota of bulls was reached quickly. But some hunters got in trouble. So did some bears.
The end of moose season was set for Monday at midnight. As of Monday afternoon, 27 kills had been reported. Biologist Carl Koch oversees the hunt for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Koch: “It was a fast moose season.”
The hunt lasted 11 days.The previous fastest hunt was in 2016, and lasted eight days.
The 27 animals killed include 14 three brow tines, four over 50 inches, seven spike forks, and two sublegals, or moose that didn’t meet the hunt requirements.
Koch says the population is healthy. He is not worried about hunters harvesting slightly above the quota, and having a couple sublegal animals is par for the course.
Koch: “In general the hunters did a pretty good job, we only have two sublegals out of 27. Hopefully we won’t get anymore. Hunters did a pretty good job of targeting legal animals.”
Koch says everyone seemed to follow the rules.
Koch: “The two that were sublegal, the hunters did the responsible thing and immediately let us know, and the meat goes to charity, and that’s how it’s supposed to work. Everybody is human, occasionally mistakes get made, but if they don’t leave it to rot in the woods, then everybody is happier.”
And the hunters are happy.
Lambert: “I’m cutting some moose bones, making some moose broth.”
Ted Lambert is a Haines hunter. He is one of eight people to have shot a moose on the first day of the hunt. He went to the mouth of the Chilkat River.
Lambert: “Totally lucky, went out opening morning, got one 45 minutes after daylight, only 150 yards from the river, I had a canoe, I got it butchered by the riverbank in that one day.”
Lambert says by the time he was done, it was too late to paddle out. So he placed the meat under a tarp, and lit a fire to keep scavengers away. With the meat safe, he started walking towards home, in the dark.
Lambert: “Actually I got lost in the woods, had to spend the night under a space blanket instead of my nice comfy home here.”
With the morning light, Lambert easily found his way back to the meat, and brought it home to process and share with his neighbors.
Another hunter wasn’t so lucky and ran into trouble up Nataga Creek, 10 miles off the Kelsall Road.
Nemec: “So we got an inreach message, an SOS that somebody had flipped their ATV, and was injured and they needed help.”
Alaska State Trooper Colin Nemec received the message on Thursday, September 21st. It came through a satellite device. He responded with two members of the Haines Volunteer Fire Department, using four wheelers to reach the injured person.
Nemec: “Went out there, provided medical assistance, and then we transported them out of the field on ATV, met up with the ambulance from Haines, and then transported them back to town.”
They took the patient to the Haines Clinic. The injury was not life threatening but reportedly a broken or dislocated limb.
Nemec says this is a good safety reminder.
Nemec: “This is a good reminder of having an InReach or some sort of communication device while you are out in the field, and being able to contact people, telling them where you are going, when you are going, when you are planning on being back.”
Carl Koch, from Fish and Game, says the hunt probably brought 10-thousand pounds of meat into local freezers. He wants to remind residents to keep the meat or any other smelly substances in secure places. He says other carnivores are on the lookout for food.
Koch: “Getting lots and lots and lots of reports of bears opening cars.”
Koch says he is working with law enforcement to try to identify the bears responsible for these reports. If they do, he says they will probably end up killing that bear.
