Deer hunting on the Island saw a notable decline this season, prompting officials to consider extending the season for the first time in the state’s history.
Hunters on the Vineyard and the neighboring Elizabeth Islands pulled in 786 deer from Oct. 7 through Dec. 31, a 7 per cent decrease from last year, according to state preliminary data.
Martin Feehan, the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife deer and moose project leader, said shotgun season was particularly slow. The harvest totaled 397 deer, an 8 per cent decrease from last year.
Primitive firearms saw the biggest decline, with a 17 per cent decrease, resulting in 98 deer harvested. The number of deer taken during archery season was 302, an increase of about 1 per cent over last year, or four does.
Two public hearings were held on Thursday to gauge the possibility of extending the season into January for Martha’s Vineyard, the Elizabeth Islands and Nantucket, for archery and primitive firearms, something that has never been done before in Massachusetts.
The rising number of deer can lead to a higher risk of vehicle collisions, as well as negative impacts on forests due to over-browsing.
Mr. Feehan said the Fisheries and Wildlife board will announce its decision on the proposed new season at a meeting in February.
“This allows for a much more relaxed full month of a season where there’s more opportunity for hunters to go out and harvest more deer,” Mr. Feehan said.
The state estimates the Vineyard’s deer density is 55 per square mile. The goal is to get the density down to 12 to 18 per square mile. Mr. Feehan said there is no estimate for the total number of deer on the Vineyard, but he guessed it likely exceeds Nantucket’s count, which is estimated to be over 10,000.
Deer are a significant carrier of ticks on the Vineyard, and culling the herd has long been viewed as a strategy to cut down on tick-borne diseases. Ironically, ticks are receiving part of the blame for the low number of deer taken this year.
Mr. Feehan said that many hunters, who spend more time in the woods than most people, have contracted alpha-gal syndrome, a tick-borne illness that causes an allergy to red meat, including venison. Mr. Feehan said this has lowered the incentive to hunt for food.
“Several of the biggest hunters, in terms of the highest harvest by individuals, have come down with alpha-gal in the last year, and so they have reported either dramatically reducing the amount that they hunt or completely stopping,” Mr. Feehan said.
Mr. Feehan also felt that the end of the bounty incentive system on the Island, where for the last few years the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society would pay $100 for each doe taken after the first two, may have contributed to the lower numbers.
“When you look at the actual total harvest from some of the individuals that had historically collected a lot of the bounties for the does, those individuals harvested far fewer deer this year,” Mr. Feehan said. “So it appears that without that incentive, it did reduce some of that individual take.”
Patrick Roden-Reynolds, a public health biologist at Island Health Care who operates the Agricultural Society’s deer locker, disputed the notion. He said the bounty system was not that effective, which was why it was canceled this year.
“It was a slow bleed of money for really not taking much extra deer off the Island,” Mr. Roden-Reynolds said.
He reported that only three hunters used the bounty system last year, which brought in around 25 deer. He felt the money would be better spent on expenses for the deer locker and Island Grown Initiative’s venison program, which recently joined the Mass Wildlife’s Hunters Share the Harvest program. This program takes donations of venison and distributes it to senior centers and other programs that help combat food insecurity.
This year’s donations hit an all-time high, according to Astrid Tilton, the gleaning manager for IGI who also supervises the venison donation program. Ms. Tilton said in an email that 17 deer were donated, resulting in 537 pounds of venison given to the community.
Mr. Roden-Reynold said that he is in favor of adding a January season to help lower the Island’s deer density. He said lone star ticks, the species spreading alpha-gal, aren’t active in the colder months, resulting in less danger to hunters.
“They shouldn’t be biting people and there’s really no risk of getting alpha-gal that time of year,” Mr. Roden-Reynolds said.
It’s also easier to find deer in colder temperatures, he said.
“Typically, the idea is that the colder it is, the more deer have to move, so the better the hunting is…” Mr. Roden-Reynolds said. “I know some bow hunters who just chose not to go hunting in the warm weather.”
