Project to highlight value of wild harvest
Shane Mahoney is a staunch advocate for hunting and angling, but he’s not an ideologue. He also doesn’t think progress is made by building walls. He’s a “uniter.” So when Mahoney, long considered one of North America’s leading conservationists, contemplated a way to boost the sagging fortunes of hunting and fishing, he settled on something all humans have in common: food.
“From our earliest history to modern times, gathering for a meal has been central to our existence,” Mahoney said Thursday in a phone interview from his office in St. John’s, Newfoundland. “The sources of protein may have changed over time, as have the means to procure it, but there is an inextricable human connection to the land and the food it produces.”
The desire for healthy, nutritious meals is found in families who hunt and fish as well as those who’ve never held a rod or rifle and rarely, if ever, set foot outside an urban landscape.
Significantly, there is a growing awareness among all sectors of North American society that wild fish and game — sustainably produced, low in fat, high in protein, devoid of growth hormones or other artificial additives — is the most desirable protein on the planet.
“We see a shift toward increasing demand for locally sourced, wild foods,” Mahoney said. “Some sectors of society are just coming around to it, but hunters and anglers are the original locavores.”
A couple years ago, Mahoney contemplated the value of game and fish taken by recreational hunters and anglers.
He knew it must be high, but how high? To his surprise, he found no one had documented it.
So in 2015, Mahoney formally initiated a project called the Wild Harvest Initiative.
The WHI aims to measure the biomass of wild meat and fish harvested through recreational hunting and angling in the U.S. and Canada; assess the nutritional, cultural and economic value of the harvested animals; estimate the size of the consumer group utilizing wild protein in both countries; and evaluate the ecological and financial costs of replacing wild-harvested food.
The work is being conducted through his Newfoundlandbased company, Conservation Visions Inc., a private organization focused on “building broader coalitions in support of biodiversity and sustainable use conservation approaches.”
Mahoney, who holds a master’s degree in zoology and is perhaps best known as an expert on the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, believes there will be a multitude of positive outcomes from the project.
“The value of wild foods has never been calculated,” Mahoney said. “By studying the value of the food that comes from fish and game, it follows that we can make a strong case for protecting the animals, as well as the water and land and habitat they need to sustain their populations.”
It could also help shore up support for hunting and angling among the more than 90% of North Americans who don’t hunt or fish.
“Hunters and anglers are, almost unanimously, good stewards of the environment,” Mahoney said. “Their ethical harvest and utilization of wild animals is something the general public has historically stood behind.”
The purpose is to reshape the narrative over hunting and angling and redefine the value of wild fish and game, Mahoney said.
“And at the same time, make the cascading arguments that we have to protect those lands and waters,” Mahoney said. “We don’t have to till them, fertilize them. All we have to do is maintain them.”
The numbers of hunters and anglers in the U.S. has fallen or leveled off in recent decades. About 13.7 million Americans 16 years and older participate in noncommercial hunting, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In Canada, the number is about 2.1 million.
The hunter numbers represent approximately 4.4% and 6.1% of the national populations, respectively, according to Conservation Visions.
Participation in recreational fishing is higher, with about 25 million Americans and 2.7 million Canadians angling on an annual basis, or about 8% of the population in each country.
Mahoney said he has watched rising tensions over hunting and fishing in recent decades. He feels debate and controversy are natural as our way of life changes.
But rather than fighting, Mahoney feels the best way forward is to develop a vehicle for a dialog.
“There is a clear and broad concern for healthy living, healthy food, exercise, a good diet,” Mahoney said. “We see this is manifest in the locavore movement, the farm to table movement. And the Wild Harvest Initiative can provide a new part of the narrative.”
The first phase of the project involved gathering harvest data from states and provinces. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, for example, provided a detailed annual report of wild game harvested between 1930 and 2014.
Recreational fish harvests are taking a bit longer to estimate, Mahoney said, because most anglers are not required to report the number of fish they keep. The data also will include wild edibles routinely gathered such as berries and fungi.
The staff at Conservation Visions has created databases of the harvests and is working on calculations of the values.
Mahoney said if there are 45 million hunters and anglers in North America, wild fish and game is consumed by perhaps 200 million people.
He calls it the “sharing virus.”
“I don’t know a person who buys a prime rib at the store and thinks about which uncle he’s going to give it to on the way home,” Mahoney said. “But by the time they bring home a deer, every hunter I know is thinking about who they are going to share their venison with.”
The work is planned to cover five years, but preliminary reports likely will be produced before 2020, Mahoney said.
Once the value of the wild harvest is estimated, Mahoney said it will allow the “counterfactual”: What would be the cost to society if recreational hunting and angling were outlawed?
The WHI has drawn support from a wide array of partners, including individuals, business interests, conservation nongovernmental organizations and government agencies.
The information generated from the project will be distributed through videos, films, social media and print publications, Mahoney said.
“It is my hope that through these series of arguments, we will reach people who are not being reached through current retention and recruitment programs,” Mahoney said. “They will be drawn by the healthiest foods available to modern humans.”
The traditions of wild harvest are of great historical and cultural importance, Mahoney said, and have renewed relevance in a world increasingly concerned for food security and food quality. He expects the topic of natural, free-range food to resonate with and help explain the value of hunting and fishing to the more than 90% of North Americans who don’t hunt or fish.
“I have said it is not controversy but irrelevance that will end modern hunting,” Mahoney said. “Our wild harvest has been, and in my opinion will always be, the most important part of our outdoor traditions. I’m hopeful this project will help keep hunting and fishing relevant for many decades to come.”