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August Brings Gator Hunts; Permits Hunt Begins June 3

Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO

A pair of alligator skin cowboy boots, wallets and belts are seen Tuesday, May 6, 2008 at Captain Phil Walters' home in Tampa.

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By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 6, 2008

Updated: 05/06/2008 04:29 pm

TAMPA - For 11 weeks starting in August, alligator hunters, most of them amateurs, will ply the nighttime lakes and rivers of Florida in search of hides, meat and the thrill of boating one of the state's signature reptiles.

The hunters will use harpoons, spear guns, bows and even fishing poles to haul the gators to the boat.

In June, Florida wildlife officials will begin issuing what they expect to be the most permits handed out since the state's annual public alligator hunting season started in 1988.

Each permit allows a person to kill two alligators when the hunting starts on Aug. 15.

Steve Stiegler, biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's alligator management program, expects the agency to issue about 4,600 permits, a slight increase from last year's 4,500.

The number could rise before the public can apply for the permits on June 3. Wildlife officials still are surveying alligator populations in some of the hunting areas to determine how many can be killed.

At two gators each, the 4,600 permits mean 9,200 alligators, though not every hunter will get the limit of two gators. Last year 4,500 permits were issued, and hunters killed 5,942 alligators.

That's hardly enough to endanger the estimated statewide population of 1.25 million alligators.

You can start applying for a permit at 10 a.m. June 3. The application period runs through June 9. Permits are issued on a first come basis, and there's a limit of one permit per person.

Starting at 10 a.m. June 10, you can apply for any remaining permits, and there's no limit on the number per person.

You can apply online at www.wildlifelicense.com or at any place that sells hunting and fishing licenses or at county tax collectors' offices.

The first thing new gator hunters need to do is become familiar with state rules that cover when to hunt, the equipment, where to hunt and safety, said Phil Walters of Gator Guides, a company that takes clients on alligator hunts.

This year hunting will be allowed an hour before sunset and hour after sunrise, an increase of the 30 minutes the state allowed last year. Still, that makes the hunt a nighttime event.

You don't hunt alligators with a gun. The state requires you to have some kind of line or rope on the reptile. That's usually done with a harpoon, though spear guns can work. So can large treble hooks and a heavy-duty fishing rig.

Once the gator is pulled to the boat, most people use a bang stick – a pole that upon sharp contact with the target discharges a bullet or shotgun pellets -- to dispatch the reptile.

You want to be absolutely sure the gator is dead before hauling it aboard.

"You don't want to have him come back from gator heaven in your boat," Walters said.

Tony Young, a game commission spokesman, said probably 3,000 or fewer permits will be issued through June 9. But when people can apply for an unlimited number on June 10, the balance probably will be gone by noon, he said.

The hunting season is broken into four one-week periods starting Aug. 15. If you didn't get your two alligators during the allotted week, you can try again from Sept. 12 through Nov. 1

You also can rank your first through fourth choice for one of the areas the game commission opens to hunting. The commission also issues permits for individual counties but with strict limits on where in the county you can hunt.

No designated hunting areas are in Hillsborough County, though one countywide permit will be issued in Hillsborough. The nearest hunting areas are in Polk County.

Permits for Lake Okeechobee and the upper St. Johns River are highly sought because both are crawling with gators.

"Lake Okeechobee is always a hotbed for gators," Stiegler said.

Because the lake is at record low water levels, the state will issue fewer permits for it. But the lack of water also means the alligators will be concentrated in a smaller area.

Permits for the most popular hunting areas probably will go fast, Walters said.

"If you wait until 11 a.m., the ones you want will probably be gone," he said.

Getting your brace of alligators won't come cheap. Florida residents must pay $272 for each permit. Nonresidents must fork over $1,022.

And that's just for you. Unless you want to catch, kill and wrestle the alligator aboard by yourself, a helper has to get a permit for $52.

There's no permit required for someone to tag along and just watch.

Of course, most people try to recover the cost by selling the meat and hides.

When it comes to hunting alligators, size does matter.

Last year hides were selling at about $40 to $45 a foot, Young said. The price was elevated because Hurricane Katrina trashed Louisiana alligator farms in 2005, where up to 90 percent of the alligator hides in the nation come from, Young said.

Stiegler doesn't expect the hides to fetch quite as much this year since a lot of the farms are back in operation.

The meat is another source of money, though you have to take it to a commercial processor to sell it. Alligator meat fetches about $4 a pound wholesale.

An alligator that's 8 feet 6 inches long, the average size of the alligators killed last year, would have 30 to 40 pounds of meat. The best comes from the tail, though the jowls produce a good cut and the back of a large alligator produces a good cut, Stiegler said.

Most amateur hunters should be able to get an 8-foot gator, Walters said. It's the bigger ones that will be hard to catch.

"There are a lot of 8-footers, and you can always find a stupid one," he said.

Reporter Neil Johnson can be reached at (813) 259-7731 or njohnson@tampatrib.com.

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