By Bryan Shy  April 09, 2019

Being a born and bred Floridian, alligators are extremely common to see in our swamps and rivers and marshes, and occasionally they make their way into our bays. These prehistoric beasts are massive lizards filled with pure muscle, or as a hunter would see it, meat. Florida alligators are known to get upwards of 10+ feet with some of the largest getting around 14 feet.

Here in Florida we work very hard to protect these magnificent animals. Florida has one of the highest rates of gators in America, however we have some of the harshest/most difficult rules and regulations compared to other states. In Louisiana, with certain permits and licenses, a hunter is allowed to shoot the gator with a rifle with a scope on it and then go collect the gator. In Florida the process is much more involved than simply pulling a trigger.

In order to obtain a gator hunting permit, you must pay for their name to be put into a raffle and then hope that their name is drawn to receive one of the permits. If your name is drawn, you are then assigned to one certain week after August 15. You are only allowed to hunt during the hours of 5 p.m. and 10 a.m.

When your time to hunt finally comes the work has only just begun. By this time, you have scouted out certain spots or certain gators that you may want to go after. This is all very strategic as you may only have one or two permits meaning you can only harvest one or two alligators. You must be very careful in choosing which alligator to take and which ones to pass up in order to maximize your chances to take home the largest one possible.

Considering hunting alligators is primarily done at night, many people may think that this would make it more difficult to see the alligator. In reality, this makes it much easier to find them. As you ride around on a boat, you are constantly shining your lights around and when you come across a gator you will know because of they glowing eyes that will be staring back at you. Gators will almost immediately go under water when a white light is shined in their eyes and they are able to hold their breath for minutes at a time.

In the instance that you are able to get close to a alligator, by Florida law, you must latch on to them by casting a treble hook and hooking into the gator. Once you have done this you are allowed to harpoon the gator in order to have another point of contact onto what can often time be a gator that is larger than anyone in your boat. Once the gator has tired from spinning and takes a quick second of rest, you must use a device called a “bang stick” in order to kill the alligator. This device does exactly what it sounds like. When the end of this metal pole is slammed into the alligator, it fires a bullet into the gator that will be the quickest and most humane kill possible.

At this point, you are now able to get the gator into the boat and take it home. You must make sure to take certain measurements of the gator and report all sorts of information to the Florida Fish and Wildlife control. This allows for them to keep track of just how many alligators are being harvested each year and where they are located.

The harvesting of these beautiful creatures not only can provide and incredible amount of mat, but is also important in maintaining the population in certain areas. Various locations in Florida can quickly become over populated with these dangerous animals so it is essential that they are hunted in order to maintain safe numbers around heavily populated areas.

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