Hunting season ends soon; Disposal, reporting deadlines apply

With the 2025–2026 hunt­ing sea­son com­ing to an end, hunters are now re­quired to stop all hunt­ing ac­tiv­i­ty and com­ply with strict post-sea­son rules, in­clud­ing dead­lines for game dis­pos­al and manda­to­ry re­port­ing re­quire­ments.

The Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture and Fish­eries has ad­vised that the 2025–2026 Hunt­ing Sea­son will of­fi­cial­ly close on Sun­day March 1, 2026, as part of ef­forts to pro­tect wildlife, main­tain eco­log­i­cal bal­ance and en­sure the long-term sus­tain­abil­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s nat­ur­al re­sources.

The min­istry re­mind­ed hunters and mem­bers of the pub­lic that all hunt­ing ac­tiv­i­ty on both pub­lic and pri­vate lands must cease by Sat­ur­day Feb­ru­ary 28, 2026.

Hunters have un­til Tues­day March 31, 2026, to re­move all game an­i­mal car­cass­es or parts from prop­er­ties and per­son­al pos­ses­sion.

In ad­di­tion, hold­ers of 2025–2026 hunt­ing per­mits are re­quired to sub­mit their Manda­to­ry Da­ta Re­turn Forms by Sun­day May 31, 2026.

The min­istry said fail­ure to sub­mit the form by the dead­line will re­sult in a fine of $2,500 per form.

It al­so warned that hunt­ing dur­ing the closed sea­son is il­le­gal and pun­ish­able by a fine of $100,000 un­der Le­gal No­tice 275 of 2020.

Manda­to­ry Da­ta Re­turn Forms can be sub­mit­ted at the Dis­trict Rev­enue Of­fice in Tu­na­puna, the Forestry Of­fice in Rio Claro, the Dis­trict Rev­enue Of­fice in Ch­agua­nas, the Forestry Di­vi­sion on Long Cir­cu­lar Road, St James, the Forestry Di­vi­sion on Bal­isi­er Av­enue, Pleas­antville, San Fer­nan­do, the Forestry Di­vi­sion in San­gre Grande, and the De­part­ment of Nat­ur­al Re­sources and Forestry at the Mil­shirv Ad­min­is­tra­tive Com­plex in To­ba­go.

The min­istry urged cit­i­zens to com­ply with the reg­u­la­tions to sup­port wildlife con­ser­va­tion and pro­tect the coun­try’s bio­di­ver­si­ty.