re: Hunting Thoughts: New Species In, Old Species Out

I think fishermen are starting to see this with tripletail. Catching them was seen as a rarity/oddity/novelty for a long time. Now you see multiple boats bring back ice chests full of them.

With all the asian invasive fish taking hold in waterways, I've wondered if eventually we will just completely give up and just stock all the asian fish so at least we will maybe have a "competitive" ecosystem.

The asian carp are OOC and have screwed up fishing in several of my areas. Something over there keeps them in check so they may work here as well. I'm told that snakehead are delicious and fun to catch.

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Catching them was seen as a rarity/oddity/novelty for a long time.

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In the late 80s I was at Campos and saw a boat come in with about 10 of them. I was a teenager and I had never seen one, never heard of them.

I don't know if there are more of them, or just that more people have learned how to target them. Bur they're certainly a blast to hunt for and catch.

My guess is that it's more of a social media and YouTube effect than anything. But who knows?

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completely give up and just stock all the asian fish so at least we will maybe have a "competitive" ecosystem.

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Not to be combative or anything, but this sounds like one of the top 10 worst ideas I've ever heard

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In addition, the state loses out on income from outlawing such hunting. No hunting --> less hunting equipment sold --> less tax revenue and no income from selling hunting licenses.

Just ends up costing the state so much in the end, especially if they get to the point where they have to pay someone to remove overpopulated and unwanted lions.

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All very true. Unfortunately, people who have that mentality think the ends justifies the means when it comes to something THEY believe in. For example, the increased costs of the "green agenda" mean nothing to them because they believe so much in the "green agenda."

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What things will their kids hunt that we don't hunt? What things that we hunt now, won't be hunted by our grand kids?

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I hunt in Western North Carolina and Pennsylvania every year. Both states started repopulating elk in the 80s and 90s (Great Smokies in NC, western/central PA). The herds are growing and expanding out of the ranges they were released in. PA currently has an elk season, but they don’t live where my families farms are so I haven’t gone after them yet. NC doesn’t have an elk season yet, and the elk haven’t expanded into the area I hunt yet anyway, but there is discussion about opening a limited season for them in the next few years. I feel confident that I’ll get a chance to hunt them on family land before my life is over, and feel certain that my son will be able to when he’s older. I’m pretty pumped about that. I hope more states bring back elk to their former home ranges.

As for what we hunt that my grandkids may not, I’ve got to guess turkey. The population decline I’ve seen in my 36 years of life has been shocking, and I don’t see any sign that they’ll recover anytime soon. Between diseases, a lot more predators, unfavorable weather trends, and habitat degradation, it’s not looking good for the gobblers. It’s damn shame.