Thread: what makes a true hunter?

I think this is a great question, although one that's not necessarily easy to answer, depending on ones perspective. I see similar debates appear on fishing forums regularly. I think for many that respond to the same question on fishing forums it's perhaps a little more black and white... species A has such & such a limit... species B has such & such a limit... those perhaps give some kind of 'moral' guideline with which to judge others... whereas with terrestrial hunting we don't have those restrictions of bag limits etc, and given the 'introduced/pest' status of terrestrial species we hunt the moral issues applied to fishing/hunting aquatic species (ie. overfishing) don't seem to hold as much ground in a lot of arguments.

But I think ultimately it comes down to individual motivations. And that's where stuff gets heated and people get angry... No-one has the same motivations for fishing/hunting as I do or anyone else does. We all do it for our own reasons, regardless of how similar those reasons are... I regularly see dudes getting ripped to shreds on facebook cos they've got a bin of half a dozen kingis, maybe 15-20 snapper and a bunch of kahawai... sure, I wouldn't/don't take nearly as much, but, I take based on my personal situation... I'm feeding for 2 and am privileged to be able to get out regularly, and as such I only need to take enough for a week or two... the dudes on that boat might be splitting the catch between half a dozen households... yet others might be feeding much bigger families and might only be able to get out once or twice a year... over the course of a year I'm probably taking more than some dude who goes out once and catches his limit of blue cod and posts a photo on facebook (I wouldn't post those kinds of photos on FB for that specific reason, but that's ones prerogative. Additionally, I consider myself in a somewhat privileged position where I'd still be able to buy groceries/survive if I didn't hunt/fish. I do fish and hunt cos I love it, and because it helps me feed myself and my family. But it's important to remember that people in other positions might hunt/fish more out of a position of necessity than desire...

Some guys love trophies, some are just out to feed their families, some just love chasing the photo... some hunt public land, some private, some fish off boats, others off the beach... In my opinion, none are necessarily any lesser hunters/gatherers than others. That being said, I'm specifically talking about these activities in regards to NZ- I'm not anti-hunting internationally, but think things need to be looked at in their own right, and those deserve their own discussion. I'm generally of the opinion that so long as people are sticking within the laws and catch limits then I'm not in a position to judge their motivations for doing what they do... I might have opinions about the rules themselves (ie. I was stoked to see the ban on pāua in the East Otago Taiāpure recently extended to the whole area and I think that was overdue, and would love to see other restrictions enacted in other areas, but that requires it's own due process), so ultimately as long as one is obeying the legal rules then who am I to judge! I think we should be encouraging as many people to get out there doing it as possible in order keep hunting and fishing recognised as a way of life for all sorts of Kiwis.