The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has closed most of the fall moose hunt under registration permit RM840 on the Seward Peninsula. In an emergency order issued Thursday, the department said the closures were issued to prevent overharvest of the season’s quota.
ADF&G closed the bull-moose hunt in Unit 22C, which includes the area around Nome, just before midnight Wednesday. The closure applies to both resident and nonresident hunters.
The season opened on Sept. 1, meaning hunters were out for about two days before the closure took effect. ADF&G said it expected hunters to meet the units’ 30-bull quota by the closing date and that no further harvest was warranted.
ADF&G also closed moose hunting in the Unit 22D Kuzitrin Drainage and Unit 22D Southwest areas at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, expecting the combined 27-bull quota for those two hunt areas to be met by that time.
The permit season in both units was scheduled to run from Sept. 1 through Sept. 14. ADF&G manages the hunts with harvest quotas and closes individual hunt areas by emergency order when it expects that quota to be met.
The short seasons continue a recent pattern of early closures in the quota-managed hunt. ADF&G has closed the hunt in Unit 22C the day after it opened every year since 2022, though the quota was raised from 25 moose in the past several years to 30 moose this year. The department closed the Unit 22D Kuzitrin Drainage and Southwest areas on Sept. 3 for the past three years.
This week’s closures add to the closure of the Unit 22D Remainder hunt. ADF&G closed that resident hunt at 11:59 p.m. Aug. 28 after it projected hunters would meet the 17-bull quota.
The only RM840 hunt area still open is Unit 22B West of the Darby Mountains. Resident hunters may take one antlered bull moose there, unless ADF&G issues an emergency closure before the scheduled Sept. 14th season end.
ADF&G says other Unit 22 moose-hunting regulations remain unchanged by the emergency orders. Still, hunters should check current ADF&G regulations and emergency-order notices before heading out, because additional closures can take effect before the scheduled end of the season.
