Game law

Game laws are statutes which regulate the right to pursue and hunt certain kinds of wild animals (games or quarries) and fish (although the latter often comes under the jurisdiction of fisheries law). The scope of game laws can include the following:

• Restricting the days to harvest fish or game (i.e. open and closed seasons);
• Restricting the number of animals per person;
• Restricting species, sex and age of animals allowed to be harvested;
• Restricting the region where hunting is allowed to take place, and;
• Limiting the weapons, gears and techniques that can be used.

Hunters, fishermen and lawmakers generally agree that the purposes of such laws is to balance the needs for preservation and harvest and to manage both environment and populations of game and fish. Game laws can provide a legal structure to collect license fees and other money which is used to fund conservation efforts as well as to obtain harvest information used in wildlife management practice.