Democracy!

FWC considers extending alligator hunting hours News Release Thursday, February 24, 2011 Media contact: Tony Young, 850-488-7867 The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) directed staff to advertise a rule amendment to extend alligator hunting hours. Commissioners will vote on it at their June meeting. The FWC gave preliminary approval for an additional four hours of daylight-hunting to the state's recreational alligator hunting season, which runs Aug. 15 - Nov. 1 each year.

Currently, the rule primarily allows for only nighttime-hunting of alligators, between one hour before sunset and one hour after sunrise. The change would extend alligator hunting hours, establishing the legal hours from 5 p.m. until 10 a.m. during the annual 11-week season.

In developing the recommendation, FWC staff weighed biological considerations, people's desire for additional daylight opportunities to hunt alligators, the concerns expressed about potential conflicts between alligator hunters and other users of lakes and rivers, and the unique and diverse views citizens have about alligators and their management in Florida. -->

Dear Alligator Management Stakeholder:

We recently sought your input regarding additional daylight alligator hunting hours under our Statewide Alligator Harvest Program. After carefully considering all of the input and assessing the pro’s and con’s of making any changes, the Commission was presented with a draft rule change that would provide four additional hours of daylight alligator hunting and set the legal hours from 5pm until 10am each day during the established harvest season. The Commission conceptually approved this draft rule at their February 2011 meeting, and they will be considering it for final adoption at their June 8-9 meeting in St. Augustine. Please do not hesitate contacting me (harry.dutton@myfwc.com or 850.410.0656 x 17279) if you have any questions, concerns, or feedback about this draft rule change. Additional details of this endeavor, including summaries of the input received, can be found on the Alligator Management Program’s website. Best Regards, Harry J. Dutton, Coordinator

I got this (above) email asking for input in this matter so I wrote a few things down and I thought I'd share-

Sorry, this info is most likely too little too late. I must have missed that email sent the first time regarding the rule change input. Here are some of my thoughts:

1. With the increased daylight hours, there will definitely be more large gators killed. Is this the intent of the commission?

2. With the increased daylight hours, are the hunters going to get “checked” more by the field officers during the daylight times? I was “checked” a few times last year, in the daylight during my hunts, and the officers were not considerate of the fact that we had less than an hour to hunt in the daylight. It was extremely frustrating to take time off work to be able to get on the water in an effort to have time to hunt the evening hour of sunlight, only to get checked by the same officer in the same spot, and to watch the sun set behind me both times.

3. Most of the gator processing shops I talked to would only open on the weekends from 0700 to 0800 or so. Were they consulted in this change? They will be required to have longer hours, what is their reaction in this matter?

4. This may make it difficult for your field officers to determine if the gator is killed by a bangstick or a gun. If my memory serves, there was a time that gator season overlapped with a gun season: how will they police the likelihood of people using rifles and scopes in the extended daylight hours?

5. Lastly, (Please recognize I do not know the dates of this year’s coming hunting seasons) making the hunting time 5 pm to 10 am is actually hurting the hunter. The sunrise/ sunset times continually change. Have you considered that the daylight savings is November 6th this year, which means there won’t actually be 4 hrs of daylight once this time change happens? For example: take the difference between August 15 and November 15th 2011, the sun will set at 8:03 p.m. on August 15th, during the same season the sun will set at 5:20 p.m. on November 15th. That only leaves 20 minutes to utilize the sunlight to hunt later in the season.

Thanks again for offering a chance to have an open line of communications with the hunters. Keep your fingers crossed that I get my tags this year, and I look forward to seeing you out there.

Capt. Nate