A number of options exist in considering the issue of roadside hunting for bears versus wildlife viewing opportunities, an official with Environment Yukon told a public meeting Tuesday night.

Senior management biologist Rob Florkiewicz said doing nothing is an option, but so is establishing no-hunting corridors along all numbered highways in the Yukon.

Creating a hybrid system is also a consideration, he said, explaining the option of creating no-hunting corridors in areas where the potential for conflict between hunting and wildlife viewing is highest.

Florkiewicz is also a member of the working group established last year by the Yukon Fish and Wildlife Management Board to examine the issue following a request by Environment Minister Currie Dixon.

The senior biologist reminded the audience the conflict between wildlife viewing and hunting opportunities is not new by any means.

"We have heard concerns not just in the last few years but probably the last 10 or 15 years about bears being shot along Yukon highways,” he said.

Florkiewicz noted the petition of 15 signatures from residents living along the Haines Road presented to the territorial cabinet in 2003 after a bear was shot along the highway.

There was also the petition presented to the legislature last year after a favourite resident grizzly bear was shot along the Tagish Road, he pointed out.

Florkiewicz said last year's incident also prompted the creation of a Facebook page denouncing roadside hunting, with 1,050 likes.

Using available statistics from the past 33 years, and recent survey 41 hunters who shot bears in 2011 and 2012, the manager of species programs provided the audience with what he described as some unrefined statistics.

• There are approximately 4,000 grizzly bears in the Yukon.

• There are approximately 6,500 black bears in the Yukon.

• On average, hunters shoot 83 grizzly bears here every year: 50 by non-resident hunters on guided hunts; 26 by licensed Yukoners; seven by aboriginal hunters.

• An average of 97 black bears are shot each year: 74 by licensed Yukon hunters; 16 by non-resident big game hunters and seven by aboriginal hunters.

• Of the annual grizzly bear harvest, 1/3 are shot in the spring hunting season and two-thirds are killed in the fall season.

• Of the annual black bear harvest, 2/3 thirds are shot in the spring and 1/3 are shot in the fall.

Using the mandatory hunting reports and the survey of the 41 hunters willing to provide additional information, Florkiewicz explained how he came up with estimates of how many bears are shot annually in the 30-metre highway right-of-way.

• Southern Lakes – South Klondike Highway, Tagish Road, Atlin Road and Haines Road: approximately one grizzly bear in the spring for every five years, and one in the fall every 10 years; approximately 3.5 black bears in the spring for every five years, and one in the fall every five years.

• Alaska Highway, from the B.C. border to Haines Junction – one grizzly bear in the spring for every 10 years and just shy of one in the fall every two years; approximately 3.5 black bears for every five years, and three in the fall for every five years.

In total for both highways, four grizzly bears are shot in the right-of-way for every five years, or fewer than one a year.

For black bears, 10 are shot on the rights-of-way every five years, or two a year.