ANCHORAGE (AP) - The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has begun to raffle permits for some of its most desirable hunts to help raise money toward covering a nearly $2 million revenue loss due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
It’s called “Alaska’s Super Seven Big Game Raffle.” The permits will allow buyers to hunt species such as brown bears, caribou or musk ox.
One of the seven hunts is in Southeast Alaska — the Revilla (Revillagigedo) Island mountain goat hunt — and the rest are in the Interior or Aleutian Islands.
“We saw close to $2 million revenue loss in the wildlife division this last year because of COVID, primarily because of the significant or steep decline in nonresident license sales this last year,” said Tony Kavalok, the assistant director of Fish and Game’s Division of Wildlife Conservation.
Kavalok said COVID-19 travel restrictions and the closure of the spring brown bear hunt meant nonresident hunting license sales were way down.
The raffle is the first of its kind in the state, Alaska public radio reported March 12, though other states such as Arizona and Wyoming have implemented similar systems. In Wyoming, the raffle raised more than $1 million this year.
The Alaska permit raffle is open to residents and nonresidents and will be open through April. Winners will be announced May 1.
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