Dozens of tickets issued to rule-breaking hunters in Shuswap: Conservation Officer Service

Officers with the B.C. Conservation Officer Service arrested one person and issued dozens of tickets to hunters last weekend around the Salmon Arm area.

The officers issued 35 tickets and gave out 28 warnings, after checking 173 hunters.

The one arrest was made for failing to stop and a firearm was seized, according to a release on the service's Facebook page.

Conservation officer Tanner Beck said tickets were issued for a variety of reasons, including loaded firearms, continuing to hunt after taking the bag limit, failed to comply with conditions of hunting licences, failed to comply with conditions of limited entry hunting, and some off-road vehicle issues.

Beck said seven officers were on the ground during the patrols which coincided with the tail end of moose hunting season, which ran from Nov. 1 to Nov. 15.

The Salmon Arm area has a healthy moose population making it a popular place during the hunting season, he said.

He didn't have numbers to compare with previous years but he felt that compliance was "fairly poor."

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