The Polar Bear Protection Act
The fragile state of polar bears has been recognized on both a national and global level as the species faces serious threats from climate change, environmental degradation and oil and gas development. Despite these threats, the U.S. government still supports the importation of polar bear heads and hides that are killed in Canada by U.S. hunters. This is due to a loophole in the Marine Mammal Protection Act that was created for special interests in 1994 and now must be closed.
Polar bears, the largest predators on land, have become the worldwide poster
child for the impact that global warming is having on our planet. These
majestic animals are completely dependent on their Arctic sea-ice habitat, a
habitat that is shrinking before our eyes. Global warming is slowly melting the
sea ice that polar bears need to breed, den, and hunt, resulting in drowning
bears, starvation, litters of fewer offspring, and lower cub survival rates.
While long-term action is required to address the significant environmental factors negatively affecting polar bear survival, immediate action can and should be taken to address the harm caused by trophy hunting. With unprecedented stresses facing polar bears today they are in very real danger of becoming extinct.
The Polar Bear Protection Act would amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act by removing the language that was added in 1994 allowing Americans to import polar bear trophies from Canada.
Polar bear trophy hunting will end, one way or another. It can either end now while there’s still hope that polar bears can survive and recover, or later, when all the bears are gone forever.
Polar bears have been hunted for their hides and meat by native peoples of the Arctic region for centuries. In recent years, however, subsistence hunting has given way to sport hunting, mainly by Americans, dramatically increasing the number of polar bears taken from the wild.
In 1994, at the behest of politically powerful special interest groups, Congress created a loophole in the MMPA to allow Americans to hunt polar bears in Canada and bring home their trophies. Since 1997, over 960 permits have been issued to American hunters by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the importation of trophy-hunted polar bear heads and hides.
The IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group stated that the polar bear population, currently estimated between 20,000-25,000, could drop 30 percent in the coming 35-50 years and that polar bears may disappear from most of their range within 100 years.
In September, 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released a series of reports commissioned by the Department of the Interior concluding that by 2050, less than 45 years from now, we will have lost fully two-thirds of the world’s polar bear populations. The USGS predicted that the remaining polar bears would disappear gradually after that, with only a small population hanging on to see the next century. Given the dire situation for polar bears and the growing long-term threat of global warming, one would think that we would do all that we can here and now to prevent the extinction of this iconic Arctic species. But we’re not. We are still allowing Americans to kill polar bears and bring home their heads and hides.
While long-term action is required to address the significant environmental factors negatively affecting polar bear survival, immediate action can and should be taken to address the harm caused by trophy hunting. With unprecedented stresses facing polar bears today they are in very real danger of becoming extinct.
The Polar Bear Protection Act would amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act by removing the language that was added in 1994 allowing Americans to import polar bear trophies from Canada.
Polar bear trophy hunting will end, one way or another. It can either end now while there’s still hope that polar bears can survive and recover, or later, when all the bears are gone forever.
Polar bears have been hunted for their hides and meat by native peoples of the Arctic region for centuries. In recent years, however, subsistence hunting has given way to sport hunting, mainly by Americans, dramatically increasing the number of polar bears taken from the wild.
In 1994, at the behest of politically powerful special interest groups, Congress created a loophole in the MMPA to allow Americans to hunt polar bears in Canada and bring home their trophies. Since 1997, over 960 permits have been issued to American hunters by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the importation of trophy-hunted polar bear heads and hides.
The IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group stated that the polar bear population, currently estimated between 20,000-25,000, could drop 30 percent in the coming 35-50 years and that polar bears may disappear from most of their range within 100 years.
In September, 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released a series of reports commissioned by the Department of the Interior concluding that by 2050, less than 45 years from now, we will have lost fully two-thirds of the world’s polar bear populations. The USGS predicted that the remaining polar bears would disappear gradually after that, with only a small population hanging on to see the next century. Given the dire situation for polar bears and the growing long-term threat of global warming, one would think that we would do all that we can here and now to prevent the extinction of this iconic Arctic species. But we’re not. We are still allowing Americans to kill polar bears and bring home their heads and hides.
Photo © IFAW/N.Ovsyanikov
