Alligator Hunting Season May Again Be Expanded
People Kill About 10,000 Gators Per Year In Florida
POSTED: Wednesday, December 6, 2006
UPDATED: 10:25 am EST December 6,
2006
KEY LARGO, Fla. -- Wildlife officials will discuss expanding alligator hunting and trapping, or any other ways to manage the estimated 1 million to 2 million gators in Florida, according to Local 6 News partner Florida Today.
A review of the state’s alligator management plan is among agenda items today at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s meeting in Key Largo this week.
Florida nearly doubled the length of alligator hunting season this year, which ran Aug. 15 to Nov. 1.
But some respondents to a recent wildlife commission survey said there are too many alligators.
People kill about 10,000 alligators a year in Florida. Hunters claimed 3,436 of them last year, compared with 3,237 in 2004. More than 7,000 "nuisance" alligators were killed last year as a result of 18,000 complaints from the general public.
The discussion comes a week after a 45-year-old Polk City man was attacked while swimming nude in the early morning hours in a Lakeland lake, under the influence of crack cocaine, deputies said.
In May, three attacks brought to 20 the number of people killed in Florida by alligators since 1948. But alligator experts say the odds of dying in such an attack are low. By comparison, about 430 people died from lightning strikes during the same 48-year period.
Copyright 2006 by Internet Broadcasting Systems and
Local6.com.
All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten
or redistributed.