The state's annual black bear hunt is poised for a comeback.

Now that the Fish and Game Council approved a plan allowing a regulated bear hunt for the next five years, that's until 2028.

Starting in less than a month, the DEP is citing increased bear activity in New Jersey and all the danger interactions that can come with it.

But activists are calling it a flawed decision that goes against Governor Murphy's campaign promises to end it.

Now they're calling on him to step in and put a stop to it.

Ted Goldberg reports.

When you start having 30 or 40 or 50 houses broken into, you know, people waking up in the middle of night and finding a bear in the kitchen, that's a dangerous situation.

Bears are best admired from a distance.

For people in North Jersey, the risk of a bear getting too close for comfort is all too real.

It's not uncommon for the bears to tear off somebody's screen door and actually go into their house to grab something.

Assemblyman Parker Space has praised the Murphy administration for bringing back the state's bear hunt after a multiyear hiatus and a brief comeback last year.

Last week, the state's Fishing and Game Council voted to approve bear hunts for each of the next five years.

If we don't control them Mother Nature well, and that's when you have the distemper, you have the rabies, the different diseases coming into them because it's more animals in a certain area.

That can be sustained.

There's no purpose for the hunt this year.

In fact, the numbers this year are very similar to what they were in 2021 only last year when I think people were pushing for a hunt.

It was also a very warm summer, according to state data.

The number of bear related damage and nuisance reports has dropped about 30% compared to last year's record highs.

Animal activists say the hunt is cruel and unnecessary, while sportsmen say it's needed to keep a check on New Jersey's black bear population.

This is a good time to stop the hunt.

Instead, have a real bear management plan where we deal with garbage.

We educate the public how to live in bear country at a bear-proof their properties.

If we don't control the garbage, if we don't control the bird feeders and the dumpsters, you we will be attracting bears to residential neighborhoods.

It's a pie in the sky.

Which towns have tried distributing what they call bear proof cans.

They don't work.

People get frustrated.

Governor Murphy campaigned on ending the bear hunt, which has left activists angry.

Governor Murphy, nickname really is Governor Murphy bear killer because under his administration, more bears will be killed by than any other administration.

During a virtual news conference today, activists promised to withhold votes for Democrats if DEP Commissioner Sean LaTourette doesn't block the bear hunt.

If bears get dismembered in October, we're going to remember in November, the League of Women Voters political message is asking New Jersey residents to stay home, not to vote for the Dems, vote for a Green Party or write in a name as Yogi Bear.

Republicans are terrible, but the Democrats have done nothing.

Even some of our allies.

Former Senator Ray Lesniak has a plan to stop the bear hunt, suing the state, arguing that the Sportsmen's Clubs have an unconstitutional number of members on the Fish and Game Council.

They don't care because they want a hunt.

There are six out of the 11 who are members of Sportsmen's Clubs, and their mission is to hunt.

Their mission is not to save the Bears.

Lesniak considered bringing this lawsuit last year after the bear hunt was reinstated.

He says he needed to do some research, and now he's ready to go to court.

It's never been raised in the state of New Jersey, but it has been in other states throughout the country and the federal government in very similar circumstances.

So that was the research that I had to complete.

Lesniak has less than a month before the hunt starts.

The first segment of bear hunting season starts October 9th in seven counties.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Ted Goldberg.