Moose hunting season opens Friday; harvest expected similar to last year

Wrangell-Petersburg area hunters took 118 moose last year and a similar harvest is expected this year. Harvest levels have remained fairly constant in recent years, area game biologist Frank Robbins said last week.

The season opens Friday, Sept. 15, and runs through Oct. 15.

The annual harvest has averaged 120 moose over the past five years, Robbins said. That covers state Game Management Units 3, 1B and the southern portion of 1C, which includes Wrangell, Mitkof, Kupreanof, Kuiu, Zarembo, Woronkofski and Etolin islands, and the mainland.

There were no changes this year to state moose hunting regulations for the area, Robbins said.

The harvest on Kuiu Island has grown in recent years, he said, to about 25% of the take last year. “The harvest has kind of shifted over the past decade and a half.”

Most of the 2022 moose were taken on Kuiu and Kupreanof islands, with about 20 moose coming from the Stikine River area on the mainland.

While waiting for the moose season to open, hunters have been going after deer — that season in Unit 3 and most of Unit 1B opened Aug. 1 and closes Nov. 7.

Hunters took about 140 deer on Wrangell Island last year, about average for the past 10 years, Robbins said. The island is one of the most productive areas for getting deer, he said, though it trails Zarembo’s five-year average of 180 deer and Kupreanof which recently has provided well over 200 deer a year.

The deer harvest typically picks up later in the year as the bucks start their rutting season, becoming more active and visible, and as snow pushes deer to lower elevations.

In preparation for an elk hunt next year on Zarembo Island, Robbins has set out several cameras on the island to help come up with an estimate of the number of bulls to enable the state to set a harvest limit.

The Alaska Board of Game in January approved a proposal to reopen an elk hunt on Zarembo. There hasn’t been an elk hunt on the island for nearly 20 years, due to concerns about sustaining the small population. Elk swam to Zarembo from Etolin Island, where the state transplanted 50 animals more than 35 years ago to establish a population.

A drawing will be held for the 2024 Zarembo hunt, with few permits expected to be available. The drawing will be open to Alaska residents and non-residents.

“There will never be a large harvest on Zarembo,” Robbins said after the Board of Game decision. “There just isn’t enough population.”