Re: Are drones for hunting like airplanes - to locate game?
In Alaska, a person cannot hunt the same day airborne, in general. There is an exception for deer hunting, and there have been exceptions for caribou when the herds exceed the carrying capacity of their habitat.
Guides and private aircraft owners can and do use planes to spot sheep in the mountains. I consider it a huge advantage compared to having to walk into the mountains to learn if there are any legal animals in the area I consider hunting. Yet it is legal, provided the hunters don't pursue the animals they've spotted from the air until the next day.
I suspect that registered, commercial sport hunting guides have something to do with allowing aircraft to be used to spot game animals. Another thing is how does one go about enforcing no use of planes to spot game in rugged wilderness, when fly-in hunters will often like to fly over the area they intend to hunt to get a bird's eye view of the remote wilderness area, before being dropped off for a 7 or 10-day hunt.
Considering these regulations, there's no reason drones should be banned in Alaska for spotting game, provided the hunter doesn't take to the field until the next day, the same as using aircraft for spotting game under the current regulations.
However, if drones ever become cheap and useful enough to be used for such a purpose - flying out several miles in the mountains to video the hillsides for white Dall sheep on the green hillsides and mountain valleys and then returning to the owner so the video can then be viewed to determine whether the area is worth hunting or not - I'm certain that registered guides and private aircraft owners will most likely object. Because they won't want the additional competition from the multitude of hunters that can't afford to own their own airplane, or don't want to hire an air taxi service to fly them over their prospective hunting area, prior to investing their annual hunting season dedicated to that hunting area. They like it the way it is. Too expensive for the majority of hunters to use aircraft to spot sheep in the mountains prior to investing the time and money to hunt that area that looked good on a topographical map. They'll claim that the unmanned drones present a safety hazard to the manned aircraft flying in the area.
Hunting regulations do include the means and methods of legal hunting; such as the length of the season, the timing of the hunting season, the number of permits issues, etc... in order to limit the number of game animals killed. If every sheep hunter in Alaska had cost effective means of scouting the mountains prior to hunting for sheep, it would require reconsideration of the current "no hunting same day airborne regulations" - which allow hunters to spot game from the air the day prior to hunting those animals. And I expect that regulations would be generated to prevent the use of drones to spot for white sheep on green mountainsides, in order to prevent the masses from benefiting from the scouting methods that current only the wealthy benefit from. Those wealthy enough to own their own plane or hire a guide or an air taxi service to scout and find their game for them prior to investing the time and energy to pursue those game animals.
I've seen video of bison hunting in Alaska where aircraft are used to spot the bison in a wilderness area in the winter when the bison will surely be located in the same area the following day for purposes of locating and killing by the hunter. It would be an altogether different proposition to head in hunting without having seen the bison prior to the hunt.
In Alaska, a person cannot hunt the same day airborne, in general. There is an exception for deer hunting, and there have been exceptions for caribou when the herds exceed the carrying capacity of their habitat.
Guides and private aircraft owners can and do use planes to spot sheep in the mountains. I consider it a huge advantage compared to having to walk into the mountains to learn if there are any legal animals in the area I consider hunting. Yet it is legal, provided the hunters don't pursue the animals they've spotted from the air until the next day.
I suspect that registered, commercial sport hunting guides have something to do with allowing aircraft to be used to spot game animals. Another thing is how does one go about enforcing no use of planes to spot game in rugged wilderness, when fly-in hunters will often like to fly over the area they intend to hunt to get a bird's eye view of the remote wilderness area, before being dropped off for a 7 or 10-day hunt.
Considering these regulations, there's no reason drones should be banned in Alaska for spotting game, provided the hunter doesn't take to the field until the next day, the same as using aircraft for spotting game under the current regulations.
However, if drones ever become cheap and useful enough to be used for such a purpose - flying out several miles in the mountains to video the hillsides for white Dall sheep on the green hillsides and mountain valleys and then returning to the owner so the video can then be viewed to determine whether the area is worth hunting or not - I'm certain that registered guides and private aircraft owners will most likely object. Because they won't want the additional competition from the multitude of hunters that can't afford to own their own airplane, or don't want to hire an air taxi service to fly them over their prospective hunting area, prior to investing their annual hunting season dedicated to that hunting area. They like it the way it is. Too expensive for the majority of hunters to use aircraft to spot sheep in the mountains prior to investing the time and money to hunt that area that looked good on a topographical map. They'll claim that the unmanned drones present a safety hazard to the manned aircraft flying in the area.
Hunting regulations do include the means and methods of legal hunting; such as the length of the season, the timing of the hunting season, the number of permits issues, etc... in order to limit the number of game animals killed. If every sheep hunter in Alaska had cost effective means of scouting the mountains prior to hunting for sheep, it would require reconsideration of the current "no hunting same day airborne regulations" - which allow hunters to spot game from the air the day prior to hunting those animals. And I expect that regulations would be generated to prevent the use of drones to spot for white sheep on green mountainsides, in order to prevent the masses from benefiting from the scouting methods that current only the wealthy benefit from. Those wealthy enough to own their own plane or hire a guide or an air taxi service to scout and find their game for them prior to investing the time and energy to pursue those game animals.
I've seen video of bison hunting in Alaska where aircraft are used to spot the bison in a wilderness area in the winter when the bison will surely be located in the same area the following day for purposes of locating and killing by the hunter. It would be an altogether different proposition to head in hunting without having seen the bison prior to the hunt.
