PORTLAND (AP) – The number of applicants in Maine’s annual moose hunt lottery continues to decline and game officials are hard-pressed to figure out why.

Applications totaled more than 85,200 in 2001, but the number has dropped steadily to 65,100 last year.

That trend is expected to continue Thursday when the 2007 moose lottery is held at Phippsburg Elementary School. A computer will select the names of the 2,880 permit winners.

Applications reached a high of nearly 100,000 after Maine’s modern moose season was instituted in 1982 and the Department of Inland Fish and Wildlife can’t explain why the number of people interested in winning a permit has been dropping.

“We’re not quite sure what the answer is, whether it goes along with a nationwide trend in stagnant hunting license sales, or maybe the economic downturn could be a part of it,” said department spokesman Mark Latti.

The department lacks the funding to survey hunters to help pinpoint the reasons, he said.

“Maybe after 25 years, a considerable amount of people have gone moose hunting and that is starting to reflect,” Latti suggested. “The unfortunate thing is, we don’t know how to find out.”

The drop in interest is more pronounced among Maine residents than out-of-staters.

Applications by Maine residents dropped by 26 percent since 2001, compared to a 16 percent drop in non-resident applications during that period.

Under the lottery’s current rules, applicants can purchase many more chances than in the past.

For residents, chances cost between $7 for one chance and $22 for six, with a maximum of six chances allowed for each applicant. Non-residents pay between $15 for one chance to $55 for 10 chances, with an unlimited number of chances allowed.

Ten percent of the permits are reserved for non-residents.

Copy the Story Link