Hunters killed 13 bears on Wednesday, the lowest single-day total of the December hunt so far
FREDON - New Jersey's record-setting bear hunt tally rose to 620 on Wednesday, with three days remaining on the season.
Hunters brought 13 bears to weigh stations operated by the state Department of Environmental Protection on Wednesday, officials said.
Eighteen bear kills were reported on Tuesday, when New Jersey surpassed the previous high of 592 bears killed in the 2010 hunt.
The second stage of the 2016 bear hunt began Monday with 27 bears killed.
A total of 562 were killed during a six-day season in October, the first time since bear hunting resumed in 2003 after a three-decade moratorium that the season was extended beyond December.
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Only three of the 58 bears killed in the second stage so far had been "tagged," or previously recorded by DEP in 2016, decreasing the prospects for an early end to the hunt scheduled to conclude Saturday.
Under the rules, the hunt would be suspended if the cumulative percentage of tagged bears that are killed reaches 30 percent, or 60 out of 197.
However, with 46 tagged bears killed in October, that total has risen only to 49 in three days.
Elaine Dunn, a bear hunt opponent from Bloomingdale, said protesters are moving ahead with plans for a demonstration on the hunt's expected final day, Saturday, across the street from the weigh station at the Wittingham Wildlife Management Area in Fredon.
Protesters began arriving in Fredon on Monday morning, about a half-hour before the first hunter arrived.
DEP spokesman Bob Considine said no arrests had been made during the hunt's second stage.
Three protesters were arrested in Fredon on the first day of the October hunt and charged with disorderly conduct and other offenses after allegedly straying beyond the area reserved for demonstrators. They are due to appear Thursday night in Andover Township municipal court.
While the hunt is playing out in eight counties, much of the focus, as in prior years, is on Sussex County. More than half of the bears killed in the hunt were in Sussex County, DEP officials said.
New Jersey Fish and Game council member Phil Brodhecker, contacted Wednesday by NJ Advance Media, reiterated his support for the hunt and said farmers had experienced the impact of the growing bear population.
"You shouldn't really need electric fences around chicken coops. That's a true indicator we have too many bears," said Brodhecker, a farmer from Hampton.
New Jersey Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel, a critic of DEP's approach to bear management, questioned assertions of bear population growth.
"We don't really know how many non-tagged bears there are," said Tittel. He said the DEP has focused too heavily on hunting and should be considering non-lethal strategies to reduce bear encounters with people.
Considine said last week that DEP's management plan includes measures other than hunting, such as encouraging residents to secure their garbage.
The county-by-county totals through Wednesday:
- Sussex County - 335
- Morris County - 104
- Warren County - 103
- Passaic County - 61
- Hunterdon County - 14
- Bergen County - 3
- Somerset County - 0
- Mercer County - 0
Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RobJenningsNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.