Kenai hunters required to complete moose orientation

Hunters aiming to take home some moose meat this year on the Kenai Peninsula will have to take an additional step before heading out — an online hunting orientation.

The 19-question quiz asks hunters to identify a legal moose by features of its antlers, testing them on their knowledge of the types of formations on a moose’s rack and whether they can identify a legal moose in the wild with several videos. Available on the Alaska Department of Fish and Game website, the orientation is free and is intended to make sure hunters know how to tell the difference between legal and sublegal moose.

Effective July 1, hunters in Game Management Units 7 and 15 — which together cover the majority of the Kenai Peninsula — have to finish the orientation and obtain a card certifying that they did so before they can legally harvest a moose. Once they do so, they can print it out and have it laminated at a Fish and Game office if they choose. It has to be on the hunter at all times while hunting, said Jeff Selinger, the area management biologist for the Division of Wildlife Conservation in Soldotna.

There’s another resource video on Fish and Game’s website, entitled “Is this moose legal?” that hunters can watch, which is being updated this year, he said. But it’s better to be overly cautious and lose an animal than risk the consequences of shooting a sublegal moose, which can include having to surrender equipment and the animal anyway, he said.

“The biggest thing is if you’re out in the field, and if you’re not sure … my suggestion is just don’t pull the trigger in that case,” he said. “People need to know what constitutes a legal animal in the area they’re hunting.”

The Board of Game put the requirement in place during its February 2017 meeting in Fairbanks by approving an Agenda Change Request submitted by the Central Peninsula Fish and Game Advisory Committee, a citizen group that meets to discuss issues before the Board of Fisheries and the Board of Game. The group was concerned that too many sublegal moose are being killed, particularly in the previous season.

“Hunters that take illegal moose deprive other hunters that are careful in determining whether a bull is legal from that animal in future years,” the proposal states. “When a subpopulation of moose is managed under a selective harvest program, success of the program depends on a low percentage of illegal bulls harvested.”

Last year, 57 sublegal moose were taken by hunters, or about 20 percent of the total harvest, Selinger said. In 2015, the sublegal take was about 42 animals, or 16 percent of the total harvest, according to a presentation submitted by Fish and Game staff to the Board of Game for the meeting in February. That only includes the animals surrendered to Fish and Game by hunters, though, and doesn’t take into account moose killed by cars on the roads, which is somewhere around 200 moose each year on the Kenai Peninsula, Selinger said.

Some groups were unhappy that the Kenai is the only place where this particular requirement will apply. The Homer Fish and Game Advisory Committee submitted comments to the Board of Game to that effect, saying it was inappropriate to accept the proposal out of cycle and hear it in Fairbanks, far from the affected area, and unfair to single out the Kenai. For one, all hunters are required to seal moose taken on the Kenai, which could increase the number of sublegal moose reported in this particular area while it is happening elsewhere but not being reported.

“The Kenai Peninsula is the only area of the state under a sealing requirement for moose, and due to this (it) is the only area for which data on the ‘honest accidental’ take of moose is available,” the group wrote in its public comments to the Board of Game. “Before additional onerous requirements for moose hunters are imposed on unit 7 and 15 hunters, we feel that horn sealing requirements should be instituted statewide. This regulation would shed light on whether the inability to judge moose is a local or statewide issue.”

Selinger said hunters should also remember that the moose orientation requirement also applies on Kalgin Island now, since the island was absorbed into Game Management Unit 15.

The orientation is available on Fish and Game’s website.

Reach Elizabeth Earl at elizabeth.earl@peninsulaclarion.com.

More in News

Alaska State Troopers logo.
State Trooper convicted of attempted sexual abuse of a minor

Vance Peronto, formerly an Alaska State Trooper based in Soldotna, was convicted… Continue reading

Soldotna City Hall is seen on Wednesday, June 23, 2021 in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Soldotna moves ahead with staff recruitment strategies

Soldotna City Council members last week gave city administration a thumbs up… Continue reading

State representatives Tom McKay, R-Anchorage, and Andi Story, D-Juneau, offering competing amendments to a bill increasing the per-student funding formula for public schools by $1,250 during a House Education Committee meeting Wednesday morning. McKay’s proposal to lower the increase to $150 was defeated. Story’s proposal to implement an increase during the next two years was approved, after her proposed amounts totalling about $1,500 were reduced to $800.
Borough, Soldotna call on Legislature to increase school funding

The City of Soldotna last week became the latest entity to call… Continue reading

Kenai River Brown Bears goalie Nils Wallstrom celebrates winning a shootout over the Fairbanks Ice Dogs on Saturday, March 25, 2023, at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex in Soldotna, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
Brown Bears sweep Ice Dogs, move into 3rd place

The Kenai River Brown Bears earned a two-game sweep over the Fairbanks… Continue reading

The waters of Cook Inlet lap against Nikishka Beach in Nikiski, Alaska, where several local fish sites are located, on Friday, March 24, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Unprecedented closures threaten setnet way of life

Setnetters have been vocal about their opposition to the way their fishery is managed

Legislative fiscal analysts Alexei Painter, right, and Conor Bell explain the state’s financial outlook during the next decade to the Senate Finance Committee on Friday. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Legislators eye oil and sales taxes due to fiscal woes

Bills to collect more from North Slope producers, enact new sales taxes get hearings next week.

Expert skateboarder Di’Orr Greenwood, an artist born and raised in the Navajo Nation in Arizona and whose work is featured on the new U.S. stamps, rides her skateboard next to her artworks in the Venice Beach neighborhood in Los Angeles Monday, March 20, 2023. On Friday, March 24, the U.S. Postal Service is debuting the “Art of the Skateboard,” four stamps that will be the first to pay tribute to skateboarding. The stamps underscore how prevalent skateboarding has become, especially in Indian Country, where the demand for designated skate spots has only grown in recent years. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Indigenous artists help skateboarding earn stamp of approval

The postal agency ceremoniously unveiled the “Art of the Skateboard” stamps in a Phoenix skate park

Bruce Jaffa, of Jaffa Construction, speaks to a group of students at Seward High School’s Career Day on Thursday, March 23, 2023, at Seward High School in Seward, Alaska. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Seward students talk careers at fair

More than 50 businesses were represented

Alaska state Sen. Bert Stedman, center, a co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, listens to a presentation on the major North Slope oil project known as the Willow project on Thursday, March 23, 2023, in Juneau, Alaska. The committee heard an update on the project from the state Department of Natural Resources and the state Department of Revenue. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)
Official: Willow oil project holds promise, faces obstacles

State tax officials on Thursday provided lawmakers an analysis of potential revenue impacts and benefits from the project

Most Read