'Fair game’ or ‘wrong move’? Floridians divided over return of bear hunting

TAMPA, Fla. — Florida's black bears are no longer out of the woods. After years of protection, the state just made them fair game.

Mixed reactions across the board after the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission's unanimous vote to allow a bear hunt in the state, which is the first in a decade.

Watch full report from Annette Gutierrez

"I think it's been a long time coming," said Dylan Hubbard, the President, Florida Guides Association.

"They're more scared of us than we should be of them," said Anthony Marinelli, a Tampa resident.

"There are certainly enough bears in Florida where you could biologically hunt them," said Carlton Ward Jr, a conservation photographer and CEO of Wildpath. "But whether you should hunt them or not depends on bigger questions."

FWC's chairman Rodney Barreto said in a statement, "I am proud that Florida is joining the majority of states that manage black bears with regulated hunting."

FWC said they want to manage the bear population after Florida went from having several hundred bears in the '70s to over 4,000 today.

Some locals are all for this.

FWC does a really good job making sure that we have some good science-driven policy," said Hubbard. "When hunters get out there into the woods, they're gonna do the best they can to conserve that species to ensure that their kids and their kids' kids have that opportunity to go out and take part in that."

While others said, the reason may be misguided.

"I wouldn't want the unintended consequence of a hunt to work against the big goal of a connected statewide bear population," Ward. "...Because since the 2015 bear hunt, Florida's bear population has hardly grown. It's still around 4,000 bears. But in that same time, Florida's human population has grown by three million people."

Marinelli saw a bear in a tree last year in Town N' Country. He tells us he is worried this will hurt the population over time – especially with all the construction bringing new homes into Florida.

"I worry about what’s going to happen to the beauty of why I love Florida - and ultimately where it’s going," said Marinelli. "You got to remember we're building on their habitat and on their homes so they're just trying to kind of figure out where to go and what to do."

FWC said hunters will be restricted to one bear per permit. They will also be limited and distributed through a random drawing.

While a bear hunt will reportedly help manage bear populations, FWC said it will still be up to the people to manage the human-bear conflicts.

The bear hunt in Florida will begin in December.