The eight-day total of 607 - including a six-day season in October and the second stage starting Monday - is the greatest number of bears killed since the annual resumed in 2010. Watch video
FREDON - New Jersey set a record with 607 bears killed during this year's hunt after 18 bears were reported killed on Tuesday, officials said.
The previous record of 592 bears killed was set in 2010, when the annual hunts resumed after a five-year absence.
A total of 562 bears were killed during an extended bear hunt during six days in October. Hunters killed 27 bears when the second stage of the season opened Monday and another 18 on Tuesday, the state Department of Environmental Protection said.
The hunt continues through Saturday.
Bears killed in the hunt are being brought to weigh stations operated by DEP, including the facility at the Whittingham Wildlife Management Area where protesters again gathered Tuesday.
Darlene De Santis of Palisades Park was among four protesters standing across the street, just before 3 p.m.
"It's a disgrace to our state," De Santis said.
Of the 45 bears brought in Monday and Tuesday, only two had been "tagged," or previously recorded, in 2016, DEP spokesman Robert Geist said.
Under the rules of the hunt, it will end early if the cumulative percentage of tagged bears that are killed reaches 30 percent, or 60 out of 197.
The tagged bear total through Tuesday was 48, including 46 in October.
That a new high would be achieved in 2016 was not unexpected. For the first time, the hunt was extended into October, when bears are more active during warmer weather.
In 2015, when the hunt lasted 10 days in December, a total of 510 bears were killed.
Six-day hunts were held from 2010 through 2014, and also in 2005 and in 2003, the year bear hunting resumed in New Jersey after a moratorium of three decades was lifted.
Annual totals from 2011 to 2014 ranged from a low of 272 to a high of 469.
Hunters killed 298 bears in 2005 and 328 in 2003.
Geist was stationed Tuesday at the weigh station in Fredon, where he reiterated DEP's commitment to other measures aimed at reducing bear encounters, such as securing garbage.
Hunting, he said, "is just one aspect of our comprehensive bear management plan."
"Obviously, it is the one that gets the most attention," Geist said.
While the hunt is taking place in eight counties, much of the activity has been in Sussex County, where 328 bears - more than half of the total - have been killed in 2016.
A hunt opponent, Doreen Frega of Saddle Brook, said Tuesday she will be protesting at the Fredon site "every day until it stops."
"It's a sinister event," she said of the hunt.
The county-by-county totals through Tuesday:
- Sussex County - 328
- Morris County - 102
- Warren County - 100
- Passaic County - 61
- Hunterdon County - 13
- Bergen County - 3
- Somerset County - 0
- Mercer County - 0
More information on the bear hunt is available on the DEP's bear hunting season website.
Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RobJenningsNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.