-There is no screwing local hunters. They couldn’t keep up and / or didn’t want them. The environmental damage to the rainforest by deer is becoming untenable.
-The bag limit for deer on Haida Gwali has been 15 or more for a long time. If that’s changed let me know I never checked the limit as getting near it would be too much work. One of my guides has done the “big hunt” and try convincing enough people to take on that much of an endeavour, and the cost of the ferry for a truck and trailer. Non-BC folks might want to look up where Haida Gwaii is, and what it costs to get there.
-The band already has open season all over the island, no limits, and little interest in taking on a massive culling project.
-Helicopters are the most effecient method of culling, and they ain’t running machines on the BC coast for $600 an hour KePet. More likely $5,000-$10,000 per machine, per culling day, plus shooter. $600 an hour gets you a small piston training machine and a pilot that’s not going to work culling on the BC coast.
-New Zealand shooters who do this professionally will waste far less of that $10,000 a day heli time. We think nothing of hiring outside specialists in many fields, hire the best people for the job, not create the fast ferry version of culling.
-Recovering and caring for the meat is unfeasible, unless they want to supply the homeless with $100 a pound venison. Better to get the cull done and buy the shelters beef.
-No, the government certainly did not run this or any project as efficiently and perfectly as possible. But likely not 10% as bad as portrayed in this thread.