CHARLESTON POST COURIER (S Carolina) 18 August 03 Guide urges alligator hunting - State officials say public season not likely any time soon
Cross (AP): An alligator hunting season could bring the state additional funds while reducing the number of alligators, says a guide for one of South Carolina's largest hunting clubs.
But officials at the state Natural Resources Department said they won't start a public hunting season any time soon. They cite budget cuts, a stabilized alligator population and the success of current alligator-control efforts.
Many in South Carolina will be watching Georgia, which will hold a two-week alligator hunting season in September. Georgia will hold a lottery and grant licenses to 180 hunters and each will be allowed to take one alligator.
Derrell Shipes of DNR said the Georgia season will be "something we'll look at with interest."
Jimmy Haskins, 29, a guide for Plantation Island in Estill, said he thinks a public season is inevitable.
"It would bring a lot of money into the department and to hunt organizers, and hunters would love it," Haskins said.
Like Georgia, South Carolina has an abundant supply of alligators, about 100,000, according to Walt Rhodes, alligator project director for the DNR. Georgia is estimated to have an alligator population of about 200,000. Haskins said a program similar to Georgia's would be a good start. "But really we should be looking at Florida and Louisiana, where they allow commercial hunting." Haskins said.
"The Department of Natural Resources could charge $100 per tag and make money, too," he said. "After all, it's not like we don't have enough alligators."
The 1969 federal Endangered Species Act outlawed alligator hunting and trading in hides. "In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the alligator population in South Carolina was at its lowest, about half of its current level," Rhodes said.
The alligator population in South Carolina along with the rest of the country has rebounded. Alligators were removed from the protected list in 1987. But alligator hunting still is restricted in South Carolina, open only to contracted DNR agents and, for a month-long, private season, to a few landowners.
Poaching can carry stiff penalties, up to $5,000 in fines and one year in prison. DNR started its alligator program in 1988, Shipes said. Part of its job is to respond to nuisance calls, which increased as the alligator population grew and development expanded.
Although Rhodes said there has never been an alligator-related fatality in South Carolina, the department instructs its agents to kill any gator longer than 6 feet. "Anything this size can be a threat to humans, especially if it's been acclimated to them," said Johnny Williamson, 54, one of three agents contracted by DNR to respond to alligator nuisance calls. "That's why feeding them is illegal."
Guide urges alligator hunting - State officials say public season not likely