Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Why subsistence?

What 458 Lott said.

I will admit to mixed feelings about "subsistence", which I have used to personal benefit, tho we personally would have been OK without said use.

Not the situation for many in the villages, tho one wonders when one sees $30,000 boats used a few months of the year for "subsistence"... Or not used for several years...

Amortised over years of course. Or new $12,000 snow machines every few years- sometimes 4 or 5 to a family. ( I used my '93 Yamaha Bravo - plenty enough machine to get to (at 15-30 mph - top end is 45!... . ), and ambush caribou or moose, and get them home - I don't "need" to run them down with a high end machine .... as is commonly done by many "subsistence" users in the Bush. (Machinery trumps ethics.... )

"Positioning" animals with a snowmachine is enshrined in the regulations...

A few actually do it ethically. Even when no one is watching!

That said, locally caught wild fish and game is far preferable to store-bought products, both nutritionally and often economically for many.

In the 8 years we lived in Kotzebue ....on a 1 to 3 year plan.... (I came home to Kenai Peninsula home a month ago, my wife comes back end of June), I "subsistence" hunted 2 moose and 18 caribou, much of which I shared with family and friends, some locally, some within Alaska, some Outside.

Even with shared salaries of over $100,000, I sure as hell would not have been eating that much "store-bought" beef vis-a-vis wild, whether bought in Kotzebue, or Anchorage, where it about 65% Kotz prices. I did buy chicken and pork for variety in Anchorage Costco whenever passing through, if needed. (mostly wine and chocolate, tho.... man cannot live by meat alone, and some other things not available in Kotz at any price. )

I "personal use" caught red salmon, with a gill-net here on the Kenai and took them to Kotzebue, despite a plethora of "subsistence" chum salmon for the catching there. Nothing wrong with chums, we just prefer reds if available. I could have taken my net up there...

What bugs me is when "subsistence" is used as an excuse on a racial/cultural level to needlessly ( operative word there) lock out other non-local folks, or needlessly lock in cultural biases in the game regulations, having nothing to do with actual game management.

Such as the "pregnant cows only" 3 1/2 month long caribou thing in GMU23

Hey, I did my part (preserving the herd), taking 3 cows this past winter in December and January, during that "cows only" period, and a bull on Feb 2nd, the day after they became legal again, tho edible from the 2nd week of November, after rut. Yeah, he had no fat on him. I don't eat fat...

I stocked up for my "sport hunting" lifestyle change....... . My freezer here in Sterling is full with various cow cuts, and bull sausage/hotdogs....

I'm not sorry, either. This "sport hunting" schtick sucks....

Below is a result of stupid regs..... and cultural preference - orphaned calves of the year that come back looking for their mother, vs running off with the group. thern they die of lonelineess, exposure, lack of knowledge, (don't know where they are or where they are supposed to go - just missing Mom) or whatever...

Those calves are best eating!.. One of the 3 cows I killed this year, despite my care to pick out a lone one (Locals refer to them as "barren" - they probably are not, and are already pregnant again - just lost their calf of the year), had a calf come running back to find her. Then it ran back to rejoin the leaving group. Fortunately.

Me, If allowed, I'll take both to avoid orphaning such a dependant calf as necessary. For the last 3 years, I wasn't allowed.

Legally.

Dozens such orphaned calf-cases every year out of Kotzebue (that were found) - multiply that by 20-30 villages. Do the math.

Ravens and foxes gotta eat too, I guess...