Russia: Fall Season Looks OK, But Spring Bear Quota Cut

If you have been on tenterhooks, worrying about the fall season in Russia, take heart. At this writing it appears the season will be conducted. We have that directly from FORT Russia, the Russian outfitter association. However, there is some not-so-good news about the spring season. Seems the brown bear quota has been slashed from 125 to 60 bears, and that means some outfitters will not be getting any licenses. Furthermore, the quota is for North Kamchatka/Koriak Province only. The South of Kamchatka remains closed to bear hunting this spring.

Also, in an e-mail we received from FORT on March 20, we learned that the approved spring licenses are being distributed in a puzzling fashion. Seems the government has snubbed several of the largest and most important outfitters by giving them few or no licenses at all. The majority of licenses were assigned to a handful of other major outfitters and numerous small operators that FORT says are practically unknown in the hunting business. Up to 15 licenses are going to minority groups that have never been involved in international hunting at all. The distribution seems at least partly politically motivated, as many of the key outfitters who worked to get the season opened last year are those left at the bottom of the list this spring. This all means that some of the outfitters who postponed hunts from last year to this spring will not be able to fulfill their obligations to clients through no fault of their own.

FORT has already protested the quota and planned distribution, calling for an increase in the spring quota. Only 53 bears from the fall 2005 quota of 240 were taken, so FORT demanded that the unused fall licenses be applied to this spring's hunt. The group was successful in convincing the Koriak Game Department to send an official request to the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, which is in charge of hunting in Russia, to increase the quota to 150 bears for this spring. Unfortunately, in a follow-up e-mail we just received, FORT announced that their proposal had been refused. About 130 hunters are currently competing for the 60 available licenses.

A clearly positive development in the midst of all this confusion is, FORT Russia has facilitated the appointment of one of its members, namely Vladimir Melnikov of Profi-Hunt Co., to the position of the Head of Department of Hunting Resources within the Ministry of Agriculture. "We hope this appointment will help solve a lot of the problems facing the hunting business in Russia," the e-mail from FORT reads, "and that it will facilitate the cooperation between the Russian government, local authorities and the hunting community." One of the issues Melnikov will be addressing immediately is the current situation with the spring season and the license distributions. He will also be working to firm up plans for the fall season. On that front, FORT is indeed fairly confident that the fall season will go off, as plans are already under way to issue licenses for both northern and southern parts of Kamchatka. Quota requests for both bear and sheep have already been submitted. Those numbers, by the way, are about the same as last year - 500 brown bears for south Kamchatka, 240 bears for north Kamchatka and 95 sheep. FORT is confident enough about the fall season that they are advising hunters who may be left out of the spring bear season to consider fall dates as "a good alternative" to spring hunting this year. - Barbara Crown, Editor.

(Postscript: If you have made travel arrangements to Russia this spring, be aware that Magadan Airlines has suspended its service to Petropavlovsk this April and May. The only alternative connection currently available is through Moscow.)

I'm about to pull the plug on my hunt. I am booked with Profi-Hunt and can't seem to get a straight answer from them.

BOWHUNR

Kathi, thanks for posting. Those harvest figures are very low. Some of the worst I have seen for this type of hunting.

Also, I would think the bit about the fall harvest quotas are way over the top. Some one is living in dreamland. The bear population there simply can not sustain that much pressure.

The real interesting piece is that Magadan is suspending service during the spring hunt. On the face of it, that makes no sense.

Maybe George Taulman {sp?} should soo them!!

375 AI,

I'm with you 100%. What the hell are they thinking? By my count, they will issue 740 fall bear permits and 60 spring. I just don't see the method to their madness.

BOWHUNR