Build it and they will come. Sometimes that's wishful thinking, sometimes it's true.
In the case of the Whittier Tunnel on the Portage Glacier Highway, it's true in spades. Access has led to a dramatic increase in the number of hunters from Anchorage and other Southcentral residents pursuing black bears in Prince William Sound. Thousands of bears have been harvested over the past 15 years, and wildlife managers, guides and transporters, wildlife viewers and area residents are concerned that the level of harvest is not sustainable.
"Springtime black bear hunting is very popular," said wildlife biologist Charlotte Westing from Cordova. Westing manages bears and other wildlife in Prince William Sound for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and she noted that hunting kicks off as soon as bears emerge from hibernation.
"Traditionally, our harvest doesn't really take off until May 21st, although this year folks may go earlier because of our mild winter," she said. "Memorial Day is the earliest it can be (May 25), and that's always a big weekend.
"It's a multi-species endeavor," she added. "People bring shrimp pots, fish for halibut, and hunt for bears. It's the first chance to get out and recreate after the long winter."
Tunnel opening bring hunters
Before June of 2000, the Portage Glacier Highway dead-ended at a railroad tunnel about a 50-minute drive from Anchorage. Access to Whittier was by railroad. The train could accommodate passengers, and about 20 vehicles on a flatbed railroad car. Some 20,000 people traveled this way each year.
That changed in 2000 when work was completed, modifying the tunnel to accommodate traffic. Overnight, Whittier was within driving distance of half of Alaska's population. Whittier saw 120,000 visitors that first year, and annual numbers settled at about 100,000 visitors. Some visitors trailer boats or keep boats in Prince William Sound.
Quickly, the annual black bear harvest more than tripled. In the 1990s, it was fewer than 200 a year. But by the mid-2000s, it was up to more than 600 some years. Under such hunting pressure, the take of female bears really started climbing.
Hundreds of hunters
Bears are good for the economy. Some 800 hunters pursue black bears in Prince William Sound every year. According to a 2014 study on the economic value of wildlife in Alaska, each hunter spends between $500 and $6,000 on their hunt, contributing more than $830,000 to the economy. Wildlife viewers also seek bears, and during the peak of the season, some 600 to 700 people per day participate in wildlife viewing trips, paying $80 to $100 for a trip (wildlife watchers see a variety of species, including bears). That translates to about $5.5 million.
But there's a growing concern among biologists that the harvest is not sustainable.
Westing said the annual harvest objective is a minimum of 200 bears, set back in 1985 when the area's population was smaller and there was no Whittier Tunnel.
That's been met every year since 1999 -- except last year when just 185 were harvested.
But some 600 black bears taken in the peak year of 2007. In fact, in the past 15 years, at least 400 black bears were harvested six times.
The high take of female bears is particularly troubling to state biologists, who want to see sows make up less than 25 percent of the harvest. That has been exceeded in all but three years since 2001.
"In coastal areas we shoot for a take of females no higher than 25 percent. But now we're up around 40 percent," Westing said.
It's difficult and expensive to precisely determine the overall black bear population in a place like Prince William Sound, and Westing hopes state wildlife biologists can launch some projects to get a better count soon.
'Red flag'
But although the trend may have been arrested bear numbers were declining.
"One big compelling thing is the harvest data," Westing said. "It's been steadily declining since 2007, and in the last two years it's really dropped off. Also the high percent take of females is a red flag."
Fewer females are typically taken for several reasons. It's illegal to shoot a sow with cubs, so that eliminates a fair number of bears from the available pool. Also, males tend to be more conspicuous in the spring because they're looking for mates and covering more ground than the females. The high harvest of females suggest there may be fewer males around.
When Westing transferred to Cordova from Kotzebue in May 2013, she immediately started hearing about bears. "Since I showed up in Cordova there's been a tsunami of public comment about how bears are declining in Prince William Sound. I'm getting letters. I'm hearing concerns from people who are out there researching other species and have no stake in it. They're seeing the decline."
Brad Von Wichman and his sister Alex operate a charter boat and a research vessel called the Babkin. They also fish commercially. Brad contends black bear numbers are down.
"You would always see bear. I remember counting 12 bear on one stream once," he said. "It's shocking now the absence of them. I think it's overhunting. It's not a lack of fish. We've had record-setting years for humpies.
"We do a lot of backcountry skiing, and when you're skiing (in spring) you see these boats, one after another cruising the shores. I've got nothing against it, but there are a lot of them. It's a cheap hunt for those guys."
In the past, Von Wichman transported hunters, but today he prefers to take people wildlife watching instead.
"We had some folks over from Frankfurt, Germany. We put them in kayaks. When bears are feeding in salmon streams, if you're quiet you can get right up to them and it's a life-changing experience. I find more value in that, I think it's a better use of the resource, but that's a personal thing."
'Easy bears have been harvested'
Mike Flores of Ninilchik Charters has offered Prince William Sound bear-hunting trips since 2000 and he has two boats in the sound most springs.
"Years ago, typically in the sprint we were seeing 35 bears, but now you can count it on one hand," Flores said. "Since 2012, it's been way off. There's a lot of pressure in close to Whittier, without a doubt."
David Pinquoch has run Alaska Good Time Charters out of Whittier since 1991. He transports hunters and takes people fishing and wildlife viewing.
"A hunter has to work twice or three times as hard to get a nice bear," he said. "The easy bears have been harvested. No question about it."
Hunters he transports are harvesting smaller bears. "They're taking a lot more 2- and 3-year-olds instead of 4- and 5-year-olds. The ones that live four or five years made it because they got smart. We're also seeing that bears are spending less time in the open, it used to be a bear would catch a fish and eat in the open, now they grab a fish and take off and eat it in the bushes."
He said in the 1990s, it was common to spend 10 to 30 minutes watching a bear in the open. Bears are more cautious about being exposed. "In 2014 I didn't see a bear stay out five minutes," he said.
Season cutbacks
Pinquoch has offered several proposals to the Board of Game. One that passed a decade ago made it illegal to shoot a bear from a boat in Prince William Sound (Game Management Unit 6D). Another proposal stated that if a hunter shot a sow, he or she would be ineligible to hunt a bear in the area the following year.
"They shot that down," he said. "I did it not so much to save those bears, but to educate people and make them target boars."
So what to do?
In 2005 the Board of Game shortened black bear hunting season by 20 days, but harvest still climbed; the season was also shortened in 2009 with little effect.
In February, the Alaska Board of Game adopted a regulation to replace the general hunt with a registration hunt starting this fall. Westing also issued an emergency order closing the season two weeks early this year (at midnight May 27) based on when she expects 200 bears to have been killed.
"Right now it's a wide-open opportunity," Westing said. "Black bear hunting is always going to be popular in Prince William Sound, and a wide-open system is not sustainable. Registration requires the hunter to declare where they are going to hunt, it's an area-specific permit, and then after the hunt, report effort, success, and other details."
Flores agrees with that approach. "I think Charlotte has the right idea now with a registration hunt and cutting it off early.
Most important for state officials, registration hunters must report within five days, giving wildlife managers a better sense of when the established quota is approaching. In a general hunt, it takes about six weeks to get that information.
Brown bears in parts of Alaska are managed with a bag limit – one bear every four years. For black bears in Prince William Sound, a similar system may be on the table before long.
State biologists are also hoping to launch some research projects. Hair snares or biopsy darts would provide DNA samples, which can be used to better understand the dispersal of bears as they become adults and how bears are related in a specific area. That may help determine what level of harvest is sustainable.
Riley Woodford is an information officer with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Alaska Dispatch News outdoors editor Mike Campbell contributed to this report.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story didn't make clear that Fish and Game biologist Charlotte Westing issued an emergency order closing the black bear season in Prince William Sound two weeks early this year, at midnight May 27.