9 Black Bears Killed On Hunt's Final Day

Nine more black bears were killed on the final day of a 10-day long hunt.

The 510 bears killed this year during the state-sanctioned hunt is the most amount killed since 592 were killed in 2010.

The hunt was held in part to try and control the black bear population in northwestern New Jersey following a series of aggressive encounters with the animals by visitors to state parks and recreational areas.

The hunt was originally slated to be six days long, but four days were added after the percentage of tagged bears harvested was below 20 percent. In the end, 24 of the 133 bears tagged for harvesting this year were killed, or 18 percent.

The state expanded the areas where hunting was allowed this year to include all or portions of Hunterdon, Passaic, Morris, Somerset, Sussex, and Warren counties, and parts of Bergen and Mercer counties.

Of the 510 bears harvested, 312 were killed in Sussex County, 94 in Warren, 58 in Morris, and 35 in Passaic.

Nine bears were killed in Hunterdon County and just two in Bergen, figures from the state show. No bears were killed in Somerset and Mercer counties.

Protesters spoke out at wildlife management areas throughout the state during the hunt.

The New Jersey Sierra Club, a non-profit environmental watchdog group, called the hunt “unwarranted and unfounded.”

“Despite all these bears being killed every year there are still nuisance bears and there is still no real management plan. It has been clear from the beginning that New Jersey’s hunts have done nothing to reduce bear incidents in the state,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “This hunt has not been about managing bears or dealing with nuisance bears, it has been nothing more than a trophy hunt.”