by Chase Lowenstein

With gator huntin' season set to start next week, The History Channel is being blamed for itchy trigger fingers across the bayou. With the rise of reality TV shows such as Swamp People, the amount of illegal alligator poaching in Louisiana has skyrocketed, and the state says there's an obvious correlation between the two. Violations have steadily increased each year since 2007 and it's beginning to alarm the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF).

According to state data, there were 60 citations total in 2007 and 2008, 69 in 2009 and 2010, and 80 in 2011. This year, there's been 98  alligator hunting violations so far, with more likely to come. A top LDWF official says Swamp People is many things, but it's not a tutorial.

"In some of our cases the subjects have admitted to watching a reality TV show and then wanting to replicate what they watched," said Col. Winton Vidrine. "While these shows offer a high level of entertainment, they do not offer a lot of information on how to legally harvest an alligator."

Most violations are classified as possession of an alligator during a closed season, or possession of an alligator without a license. Most of the increases in violations are occurring in the Saint Mary, Saint Martin, Assumption, Saint James, Saint John, LaFourche and Terrebonne parishes going from two violations in 2010 to 42 violations so far in 2012.

The hunting season is divided into two, 30-day "zones". The east zone starts the last Wednesday of August and the west zone begins the first Wednesday of September.

While an alligator hunting license only costs $25 for residents, illegally possessing an alligator can cost poachers up to $950 and 120 days in jail for the first offense - a punishment that many offenders could easily avoid. Non-residents can get a license for $150. Information on applying for an alligator hunting license can be found at www.wlf.louisiana.gov/wildlife/alligator-hunting.

Not all offenses, however, are due to a lack of a license, large amounts of people are hunting on illegal grounds. Property that supports a large enough alligator population to sustain hunting will be issued harvest tags, usable only by the property owner or people to whom they give permission. There are also public lands that allow hunting in which bid and lottery systems determine who is allowed to use them.

The Department takes credit for bringing alligators back from near extinction to a Louisiana population of roughly 1.5 million chompers today.

According to Col. Vidrine, "These regulations are put in place for a reason and have worked for over 40 years since their inception in 1972."