Increased sport hunting loads an additional burden on a species already vulnerable to extinction because of climate change, environmental contaminants, and a long history of being hunted for sport.
Taking immediate steps to help protect the threatened bears, Humane Society International (HSI) has appealed to Greenland and Nunavut directly and is urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to disallow imports of trophies from polar bears hunted anywhere in Nunavut. A 1994 provision of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) allows sport hunters to import their trophies from Canada, despite U.S. prohibitions against hunting polar bears, and a decades-old pledge by the United States to protect the great white bears.
On February 8, the USFWS announced its intention to review the status of polar bears to determine whether they should be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. This will begin with a 60-day public comment period, and is the result of a petition filed last year by the Center for Biological Diversity.
Polar bear researchers in Canada have expressed concern about the misinterpretation of the increased sightings by hunters as a population gain. They suggest that bears might simply be changing their distribution due to a habitat altered by global warming. The researchers suspect that hunters may be seeing more polar bears because melting ice has forced polar bears inland.
This concern is echoed by the chair of The World Conservation Union (IUCN) Polar Bear Specialist Group, Dr. Øystein Wiig. Wiig has stated, "The observed increase in local density alone does not justify a higher quota. The amount of harvest could be much higher than the populations in the Baffin Bay [area] can actually take."
In fact, the polar bears in Western Hudson Bay, the southern-most population and the best studied in the world, have shown a substantial decrease in numbers in the last few years. A recent scientific communication presented by the USFWS at the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission's annual meeting in Anchorage in October, noted a drop from about 1,200 to 1,000 bears.
At a July 2005 meeting, the Polar Bear Specialist Group announced that polar bear populations might drop 30% in the next 35–50 years. The group also recommended that the IUCN reclassify polar bears as vulnerable and add the species to the Red List of threatened species.
"This is the first time that we've evaluated the plight of polar bears [with] respect to climate change, and we found that they were vulnerable to extinction," said USFWS biologist Scott Schliebe. While the group didn’t cite loss of habitat as the sole threat to polar bears, it did express concerns about environmental contaminants and hunting.
Satisfying Sport Hunters
Nunavut Minister of Environment Olayuk Akesuk has denied that the quota increase was aimed at satisfying sport hunters, but natives have sole discretion to sell their subsistence tags to foreign hunters seeking a trophy. (Most hunters are Americans, who are prohibited under the MMPA from importing polar bear trophies from any nation other than Canada.) Nunavut is inhabited primarily by Inuits, who have a strong tradition of hunting. Polar bears are a source of meat, fat, and skin for native hunters, but a sport hunter might pay up to US$30,000 to bag a bear skin rug. The high demand for polar bear hunting permits is one reason why scientists are skeptical of hunters' reports of polar bear abundance—polar bear population reports have been known to be unjustifiably inflated when the demand for trophies is high.
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A sport hunter might pay up to US$30,000 to bag a bear skin rug...The high demand is one reason scientists are skeptical of hunters' reports of polar bear abundance. |
Canada has roughly half the world's polar bears, most ranging either solely or partially within Nunavut's vast borders. Historically, sport hunting devastated local populations, leading to the signing of the 1973 International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears by the five Arctic nations with polar bears in their territory (Denmark/Greenland, Canada, the United States, the former Soviet Union—now the Russian Federation—and Norway).
Until Greenland's recent announcement, Canada was the only country that allowed a sport hunt—though it is arguably not permitted under the terms of the 1973 agreement. (Two articles of the agreement seem to limit hunting rights only to local people using traditional means in traditional areas, which would thereby preclude sport hunting.) Until the Polar Bear Working Group's recent recommendation, polar bears had not been considered endangered or threatened, but some stocks are clearly in decline and vulnerable to environmental changes that affect their health and availability and accessibility of prey. In Norway, polar bears have been found to accumulate high levels of contaminants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), leading to deformities and reproductive failures.
On December 22, Greenland officials decided on a hunt quota of 150 polar bears for 2006. They have yet to announce how many of these will be designated for sport hunting. Their hunting season begins in July. In the past, subsistence hunters in Greenland were allowed to kill as many bears as they wanted, and the government did not keep track of the number of bears killed. While setting a quota and keeping records is a positive step, science suggests that the quota is too high. The scientists at the Greenland Nature Institute advised a maximum quota of 90 bears. HSI believes that none of this quota should be offered to trophy hunters. Reports suggest that the government plans to introduce polar bear sport hunts for tourists in 2006 or 2007 and may start with a quota of 10 bears per year.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Must Act
In January 2005, HSI wrote letters to the governments of Greenland and Nunavut, strongly criticizing the proposals to up hunting quotas.
Nunavut announced soon after the news broke that its decision was final, and that it would formally increase its hunt quotas by 115 bears a year. Akesuk responded to HSI's letter in late March 2005, acknowledging our arguments but insisting that traditional knowledge was a sound basis for determining quotas, and that the populations affected would be carefully monitored. Greenland has not replied to HSI's letter.
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"Polar bears are in trouble, as a consequence of global warming. The last thing they need is to be chased down and killed in their arctic environments by individuals seeking trophies." |
At the same time HSI wrote to the two governments, it also asked the USFWS to review import approvals for Nunavut's polar bear populations should the Canadian territory finalize its decision. The USFWS responded in late March, stating, "The Service is looking carefully at the situation to determine the best and most expeditious course of action to meet our responsibilities under the [Marine Mammal Protection Act]."
HSI has continued to urge the USFWS to formally review its approval for import of those stocks affected by the quota increase—we firmly believe the law requires the USFWS to rescind the import approvals, as the best available science does not support a quota increase, particularly one so substantial. Studies have shown that polar bears rely on high adult survival to maintain population numbers, suggesting that they have not evolved to withstand major losses to the adult bear population, making this increased quota a significant threat.
Recent media reports state that a government-to-government meeting will take place in Canada sometime this month to discuss the U.S. import approvals for Nunavut bears.
"Polar bears are in trouble, as a consequence of global warming. The last thing they need is to be chased down and killed in their arctic environments by individuals seeking trophies," stated Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The HSUS. "While the United States prohibits trophy hunting of polar bears, it does allow American hunters to kill a polar bear in Canada and import the body or pelt back to the United States. The United States needs to close that loophole in the MMPA if it is serious about protecting this vulnerable species."
Take Action to Help Polar Bears
1. Tell the Polar Bear Project of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to stop allowing the import of polar bear trophies into the United States.
2. Write to the Embassy of Denmark to express your opposition to introducing a polar bear trophy hunt in Greenland. Contact:
Mr. Friis Arne Petersen
Embassy of Denmark to the United States
3200 Whitehaven St., NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
Phone: 202-234-4300
Fax: 202-328-1470
E-mail: wasamb@um.dk
Naomi A. Rose, PhD, is Humane Society International's marine mammal scientist.
