Isn’t there a better way to manage bears?

SPRING HUNT 2010
By Chris Genovali

A new decade has dawned, but this month yet another year of grizzly bear hunting will commence in British Columbia.

The B.C. grizzly bear hunt has been a source of unrelenting controversy. Both sides are stuck in a continual expert-driven argument in which each camp claims science supports their position. Perhaps it is time the debate was conducted within the context of ethical considerations as well.

Brian3-small — Captain Brian Falconer leads Raincoast’s Spring and Fall hunts. For more information and to reserve a voyage on the Achiever, please contact brian@ raincoast.org. Don't miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to travel in the realm of B.C.'s coastal bears on Raincoast’s research vessel Achiever and experience a different kind of "hunt.”

In his paper, Environmental Ethics and Trophy Hunting, Dr. Alastair Gunn states that “Nowhere in the [scientific] literature, so far as I am aware, is hunting for fun, for the enjoyment of killing, or for the acquisition of trophies defended.”

The compulsion to kill these intelligent, powerful and beautiful animals in order to “bag a trophy” is something poll after poll has shown the average British Columbian cannot fathom.

Raincoast lead the campaign to get a province-wide moratorium on the grizzly hunt enacted in 2001. That ban lasted one hunting season as with a change in government via the spring 2001 election came a revocation of the moratorium. Raincoast’s response was to look for new and creative ways to further grizzly bear conservation – a particularly noteworthy one being the purchase of a 24,000 square kilometer commercial hunting tenure in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest.

Managing and monitoring our guide outfitting territory costs money, as does our efforts to investigate potential additional acquisitions. Speaking of which, we are on the verge of moving forward with another guide outfitting territory purchase – details to come!

We need your support to continue our work to protect bears and other large carnivores on the B.C. coast.

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Raincoast’s in-house scientists, collaborating graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors make us unique among conservation groups. We work with First Nations, academic institutions, government, and other NGOs to build support and inform decisions that protect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and the wildlife that depend on them. We conduct ethically applied, process-oriented, and hypothesis-driven research that has immediate and relevant utility for conservation deliberations and the collective body of scientific knowledge.

We investigate to understand coastal species and processes. We inform by bringing science to decision-makers and communities. We inspire action to protect wildlife and wildlife habitats.