2022_10_18 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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DOFAW West Hawaii Wildlife Biologist Kanalu Sproat will discuss general Administration rule changes in public hunting areas. AA: Kanalu are you up? KS: Yeah, I’m on… AA: Go ahead. KS: So I can do a share screen? AA: Yeah. SW: Barbara, since you’re administrator I think you need to allow him to share screen. There you go. KS: So can everyone see my screen? AA: Yes. KS: OK. So last time I was on we talked about rules changes for Puuwaawaa and Puuanahulu. Ah, today, I’m just going to talk story about the changes that we proposed for Mauna Kea Unit A. Um, Unit G, which kind of matches Unit A, and then Unit Ipu \[?\], um, Pohakoloa training area. So I’ll start with Unit A. And so all we’re proposing for Unit A is to increase the bag limit of pigs to four per hunter per day. And then to allow or to restrict mammal hunting below the tree line during legal game bird hunting days for safety reasons so that’s what they used to do before and then in the last \[unclear\] there was some confusion in that they don’t allow pig hunting but they do allow sheep hunting. So I’m just trying to pin it all up so that on game bird hunting days there’s not mammal hunting below the tree line, but you can hunt mammals above the tree line and that’s for pigs and sheep and goats. And then moving on to the changes we’re proposing for Pohakuloa, um, I don’t know why it did that – hold on. Sorry… So right now Pohakuloa is only when they have their hunts – they’re only allowed to harvest one sheep and one goat per hunter per day, um, we believe that the population of sheep and goats in the area is way too much and so we want to give them the ability to reduce that using their hunting program and so, we’re basically just saying we want to allow the commander to set bag limits when they do have their hunts and so just whatever the commander deems as appropriate to remove, to reduce the number of animals in the area. Last time we already talked about Puuanahulu so I will move on to Hunting Unit G – Kaohe and Hunting Unit G – Kaohe – just matches Unit A, same thing, of increasing 4 pigs – the bag limit to 4 pigs per hunter per day and same thing about restricting mammal hunting to above tree line during the fall game bird season. And that’s all I have for the additional – that’s the stuff I wanted to talk about the last time but wasn’t able to. So I’m open to whatever questions you guys might have or any thoughts you might have on those proposals. AA: Abraham – District 5. The Unit A and the \[unclear\] areas, how much mammals are there below the tree line area? Do you have any idea? 3