“Hunting big game in Alaska with the help of remote-controlled, camera-equipped aircraft will be illegal later this year when new regulations take effect,” adn.com reports. “Troopers brought up the issue with game board members in February after hearing about a drone-assisted moose kill in Interior Alaska in 2012, Chastain said. That moose hunt was reported to troopers by state Department of Fish and Game staff, the trooper captain said, but there were few details about it, because the moose kill was apparently legal and troopers did not investigate it.” Color me confused. What the problem? And the Game Board’s rationale for government intervention in drone assisted hunting is . . .
Prohibiting the use of drones is based on the same principle of fairness as the same-day airborne regs, [operations commander for the Wildlife Troopers Capt. Bernard] Chastain said.
In the proposed regulation, remote-controlled aircraft are listed with unlawful hunting methods including the use of poison, bombs, radio communication or exploding salt licks, among other things.
“Other people don’t have a fair opportunity to take game if somebody else is able to do that,” Chastain said. “On the biology side, if you make it too easy to take animals, then there’s not opportunity for everybody else out there, because they can only allow so many animals to be taken.”
Didn’t Kurt Vonnegut write a short story along these lines? Long story short, Louisiana remains the drone-assisted hunter’s go-to happy hunting ground. Who’d a thunk it?