Five brown bears, including four females and one male, were killed in defense of life and property this year, in addition to two males and one female that were harvested during the spring and fall hunting seasons.
Among those killed outside of the hunt was a bear on the breakwater that a local fisherman shot and killed from the dock at the Haines Small Boat Harbor on Friday night.
Area management biologist Carl Koch wrote in an email that the bear was a female, which is why he issued a season closure for Oct. 13. An accompanying media release described local brown bears as vulnerable to overharvest.
That vulnerability is due to a record 49 bears that were killed in 2020 which reduced the population by an estimated 16-20%. In 2021, the state limited the number of brown bears that could be killed in order to regrow the population.
State managers have said they intend to review and update their brown bear management strategy over the winter using a comprehensive research study of Chilkat Valley bears completed this year, the total number of bears killed in 2024, and population modeling.