In comparison, fencing was described as costly and challenging given the island's topography, while recreational hunting was generally ineffective on its own, the conservancy found.

However, opposition to aerial hunting has grown over the months.

The advocacy group Coalition to Save Catalina Island Deer has collected more than 18,000 signatures since Sept. 23 on a petition opposing the concept.

The group says there was "no meaningful public process" in discussing the proposal and characterized aerial shooting as "inhumane tactics." Both the coalition and Hahn have said the sharpshooting method is extreme.

The conservancy hosted a community forum Jan. 31, after the petition was published, to discuss several conservation issues, including the deer population.

However, the idea is not a novel one, said Bernd Blossey, a natural resources and environment professor at Cornell University.

Blossey, who is also chair of the university's deer management program, pointed to aerial shooting efforts used to eradicate feral goats on the Galapagos Islands and in New Zealand earlier this century.

"When people ask if something is normal, I respond with, 'How do you define normal?'" Blossey said. "In the case of Catalina, which is an island like the Galapagos and New Zealand, using helicopters or aircraft to shoot unwanted animals is standard operating procedure."

Blossey also believes that calls to relocate the animals, as some conservationists want, may be more harmful than helpful.

"The capture is traumatic, the transport is traumatic, and the success rates of doing both are poor," he said. "Then they're moved to areas that they don't know and it's just not a good thing."

Blossey also said he didn't want to "sugarcoat" aerial shooting, because he said the mortality numbers would be high, particularly earlier in the process.

"You might get a couple hundred in the first week because the deer aren't used to the tactic and won't have any defenses," he said.

If approved, the hunts would begin in the fall.

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