The pig population has increased, calling hunters for a ‘wild boar drive hunt’.

The Director of the Eastern Protection and National Parks 11th Region, Resul Doğan, stated, “It is a fact that the wild boar population has increased in recent years. As a result of the increase in the wild boar population in Samsun, agricultural lands are suffering significant damage. We also encourage and support the implementation of continuous hunting to balance the wild boar populations.”

The hunting season in the Black Sea Region will begin on August 24. With the opening of the season approaching, Director Resul Doğan provided information. Director Doğan said, “Before the hunting season starts, we primarily provide hunting training to our own personnel institutionally. We regularly conduct training in the 5 provinces under the regional directorate regarding what we can do in terms of hunting protection and preventing biological smuggling within the framework of laws and regulations. Additionally, before the hunting season begins, we provide training and seminars to the units of the gendarmerie organization at the provincial and district levels concerning the ‘Law on Hunting’ No. 4915. The hunting season in our region will start on August 24, 2024. There is a third group hunting season for our region, which will start on November 26, 2024, and end on March 2, 2025. The free days for hunting are Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday. Apart from these days, official holidays will also be open for the hunting season. Tuesdays will also be free for birds and wild boars,” he said.

Closed Hunting Areas in Samsun

Providing information about closed hunting areas in Samsun, Doğan stated, “The area starting from Engiz Stream in the 19 Mayıs district and extending to Yakakent, as well as the marine part of the Samsun-Sinop highway, is completely closed to hunting. The Kızılırmak Delta, Ladik Lake Wetland Area, the Hacıosman Nature Area located in the Çarşamba district, and the wildlife development area of the Simenit Lake in the Yeşilırmak Delta are completely closed to hunting.”

Important Points for Hunters

Noting that hunters must first obtain hunting permits from branch directorates, Doğan stated, “Then, they need to comply with the basic rules regarding hunting published in accordance with the decision of the central hunting commission. For this purpose, there are programs that define hunting area boundaries that can be loaded onto phones in our hunter program. They need to load these onto their phones and first obtain their hunting permits. Besides these, the first thing our hunters should pay attention to is not to enter prohibited areas. Hunters should hunt in the hunting areas for which they have obtained permits, pay attention to hunting quotas, refrain from hunting at night, and not exceed the specified limits. They should also carry the necessary accessories in their rifles. The hunting area boundaries are defined in the hunting officer program. We can see the locations of hunters hunting in that area on that day; they cannot see our locations. Therefore, it is a program where we do point tracking to monitor whether the hunters are entering prohibited areas. In hunting control, all personnel on duty in the field have body cameras. These body cameras are on and recording in real-time during their duties. In addition to this, we conduct hunting control using drones in hard-to-monitor areas, which we call wetlands. We also set up camera traps in different locations to identify individuals who engage in illegal hunting.”

“We are considering making hunting tourism subject to balancing wild boar populations through agencies”

Stating that they encourage and support continuous hunts to balance wild boar populations, Doğan said, “It is a fact that the wild boar population has increased significantly in recent years. The increase in wild boar populations in Samsun has caused serious damage to agricultural lands. We are planning controlled wild boar hunts through the provincial and district directorates of agriculture and forestry. We encourage hunters to participate in continuous hunts for wild boar. We have a struggle to balance the population. We are considering making hunting tourism subject to balancing wild boar populations through hunting tourism agencies. The foundation of hunting in Samsun is migratory birds. Here, generally, species such as ducks, waterfowl, greenheads, mud ducks, and similar animals are predominantly hunted.”

“There are fines for those who do not comply with the rules”

Pointing out that there are 4,000 registered hunters actively in Samsun, Doğan stated: “Of these, 3,100 have obtained hunting permits and are hunting in the field. We impose fines on individuals who do not comply with the rules of hunting. In this regard, we have fined 330 individuals across the region. We have imposed administrative fines totaling 1 million 400 thousand TL. So far in 2024, we have taken legal action against 108 individuals. As a result, we have imposed 300 thousand TL in administrative fines.”