Throwing wolves and sharks to the tourists: ALASKA AND HAWAII PLAN PREDATOR MASSACRES
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1992:
JUNEAU, ALASKA––Hoping
to hype tourism, the Alaska Board of
Game on November 17 announced plans
to kill up to 80% of the 700 wolves who
inhabit the 43,000-square-mile region
between Anchorage and Fairbanks. The
same day, for essentially the same rea-
son, the Hawaii Shark Task Force
nnounced it would begin killing tiger
sharks on sight.
The Alaskan massacre is to
commence as early as January, while
shark-killing off the coast of Hawaii may
already be underway. In each case, state
officials called the killing necessary to
boost the tourist industry, but in each
case and especially vis-a-vis Alaska, the
immediate result was a wildcat (sponta-
neous) boycott by potential visitors,
which within 10 days seemed likely to
become an international campaign by
animal protection and environmental
groups.