S.C. may permit alligator hunting

Legislators hope to pass law that would help thin population

By WAYNE WASHINGTON - wwashington@thestate.com

The resolution of a political tiff over a proposed interstate to Horry County and the recent alligator attack on a swimmer in Lake Moultrie will likely clear the way for a new law establishing an alligator hunting season, a Lowcountry legislator said Thursday.

“Everybody understands we need to thin them out a bit,” said state Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Berkeley County.

Campsen and his Senate colleagues passed a bill that would establish an alligator hunting season in South Carolina, but the legislation stalled in the House.

Campsen said a dispute between the state departments of Natural Resources and Transportation blocked passage of the alligator bill.

The DNR wanted the DOT to pay for protected land that would be needed for the proposed Interstate 73 to Horry County, Campsen said. When DOT balked, Horry County legislators sided with DOT and sought to pressure DNR by holding up other DNR priorities, including the establishment of an alligator hunting season.

“That’s the kind of scuttlebutt that was going on,” said Campsen, adding that DNR and DOT have come to an agreement on the land.

That agreement, plus fresh memories of how a swimmer in Lake Moultrie lost an arm to a large alligator earlier this month, will generate more support for the bill, Campsen said.

“Right now, we can take alligators, but it has to be done by a licensed professional, and DNR has to come out to your property and say you can take this many alligators,” he said. “It’s too restrictive.”

The new bill likely won’t result in a large drop in a gator population estimated to be around 100,000, said Derrell Shipes, chief of statewide projects for DNR.

Hunters will have to get a permit to take a gator, and the number of permits will be limited. Hunters won’t be able to simply shoot alligators. They will have to capture the gators using snares, gigs or nooses. They then can shoot them with arrows or harpoons attached to sturdy lines.

The object, Shipes said, is to prevent a wounded gator from slipping to the bottom of a lake to die, with the carcass floating to the surface a few days later.

South Carolina’s proposed hunting law is modeled after one in Georgia, which has an estimated gator population of 200,000 and has allowed hunting since 2003 with similar restrictions. Last year, hunters legally took only 175 gators.

Campsen said he believes establishing an alligator season is smart policy — for gators, which could overpopulate the area; for people, who could encounter problem gators; and for pets, which could become gator food if they wander too close to one of the reptiles.

Campsen said he plans to go duck hunting with his teenage sons today. But because of what he described as a large increase in the gator population in recent years, he will monitor his boys closely.

“I’m not going to let them wade out in the water. And I’m not taking my dog, either.”

Staff writer Joey Holleman contributed to this story. Reach senior writer Wayne Washington at (803) 771-8385.

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