By Chuck Kelly
Sitting on the boat, ready to depart for a multiple-day hunting trip to Catalina Island, California, I was struck with a similar feeling I’d had years ago. In 2012, I separated from the military, needed money, and shotgunned my resume to anyone with an email address. I received a phone call asking if I could deploy to Papua New Guinea in five days. I said yes before I could even find the place on a map or knew WTF I would be doing there. Later, I’d learn to ask all these companies two simple questions: “What’s the pay, and what’s the rotation?”
I found myself on a 18-hour travel itinerary, frantically gathering as much situational awareness about my upcoming area of operation. Sitting in the Singapore airport, waiting to board my flight to Port Moresby, skimming stories about violent cannibalistic tribes, kidnappings, South African mercenaries, the Bougainville Revolutionary Army, gold mines, Amelia Earhart’s last known location, drugs and weapon trafficking: all the makings of a beautiful third world country. I filtered these stories by “local news” and started reading articles posted 30 minutes earlier about a violent coup in Port Moresby.
“Boarding flight xxxx to Port Moresby” blared across the terminal speakers. I found myself sitting in a middle seat of a Dash 8, hot AF, between two PNG nationals with red betel nut-stained teeth on their way home, thinking, What kind of shit storm have I gotten myself into now?
Catalina Deer Hunt
Fast-forward 10 years, and I’m sitting on the Catalina Express with my dad, on our way to try to fill four deer tags in three days. Remember, this is in California, not the most pro-gun, pro-hunting state. We tried our damndest to look inconspicuous, but that’s hard to do when everyone else on the boat looks like they walk to Whole Foods and eat Açaí bowls and tofu for every meal.
While we waited to push away from the dock, I decided to check if there’d been any update on the deer eradication plan that the conservancy is trying to implement on Catalina Island. The first article I read was posted only five hours earlier and talked about protesters to save the deer at the port in Avalon, death threats to the head of the conservancy, and a suggestion from the LA County Sheriff that the head of the conservancy should leave the island for her safety.
Deja vu. I worried we were going to get off the boat and be greeted by Birkenstock-clad protesters trying to throw fake deer blood on us or something.
Come to find out, 3,500 of the 4,000 Catalina residents had signed a petition to not eradicate the deer population. Many residents live off deer they kill and support hunting on the island as a way to maintain the population.
The conservancy’s goal is to restore the island to “pre-European man,” meaning anything not native needs to go. Except for a species of fox they say swam 26 miles from the mainland, quail they say flew 26 miles in a windstorm, bison they’ve injected with birth control, eucalyptus trees, fennel, and I’m sure the list goes on…
Conservation Via Eradication
So the conservancy wants to get rid of the deer. Why? The conservancy says there are 2,000 deer on the island and they are eating away all the plants. Let this sink in: a 48,000-acre island and 2,000 deer; that’s 24 acres per deer. There’s no fucking way. We had one more doe tag to fill our last day and scoured the island from dawn to dusk and didn’t see shit.
So what’s the real reason they want to hire a helicopter company to eradicate the deer and leave the carcasses to rot? No more hunting? No more guns? Warped ideology of conservation? I don’t know, but what I do know is that Catalina is the last of the Channel Islands to still have deer. Deer, pig, goat, and elk were all present among the islands but have been eradicated off by helicopter and other means over the years. Why eradicate a natural resource? Catalina could be a sanctuary city for deer and elk if CWD gets really bad. Perhaps the island herds could be used for reintroduction one day. Or we could use the venison to feed the homeless on Skid Row? There seem to be better solutions than simple annihilation.
Needless to say, we had an amazing trip. We filled three out of four tags: two bucks and a doe. Father-son bonding with beautiful backdrops. If we can go back next year, we will, but if the conservancy gets their way, I might apply for a shooter position in the helicopter.
My question to the conservancy: What’s the pay, what’s the rotation?
