Last Unit 22 bull moose hunt closes early as quota fills

The fall RM840 moose hunt on the Seward Peninsula is over. Fish and Game closed the last open area, Unit 22B west of the Darby Mountains, at 11:59 pm Sept. 13, a day ahead of the planned close, when its 30-bull quota filled.

The rest of Unit 22 went before it. The permits are built to shut an area as soon as its quota is reached, and in some places that came fast. The Kuzitrin drainage and southwest 22D closed Sept. 3, three days into the season, after hunters took 27 bulls. Unit 22C closed Sept. 2 at 30.

The first to close, the remainder of 22D, shut Aug. 28 after 17 bulls, and not only because of the count: biologists had flagged low bull-to-cow ratios there.

Across Unit 22 as a whole, Fish and Game estimates about 6,700 moose, inside its objective range of 5,100 to 6,800.

A winter hunt, RM843, is scheduled to open Jan. 1 in Unit 22B west of the Darby Mountains.