Will this have any consequences on Americans hunting polar bear in Canada? I was wondering if this will affect the CITES permits necessary to get the polar bear skin into the U.S.A.


Groups Sue to Protect Polar Bears

December 16, 2005 — By Dan Joling, Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Three environmental groups sued the federal government Thursday, seeking to protect polar bears from extinction because of disappearing Arctic sea ice.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, demands that the government take action on a petition environmentalists filed earlier to have polar bears listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act.

Once a species is listed as threatened, the government is barred from doing anything to jeopardize the animal's existence or its habitat. In the case of the polar bear, the environmentalists hope to force the government to curb U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.

The Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace said extensive scientific evidence shows sea ice is melting because of global warming.

"Global warming and rising temperatures in the Arctic jeopardize the polar bear's very existence," said Melanie Duchin of Greenpeace. "Polar bears cannot survive without sea ice. Polar bears could disappear in our lifetime if we don't take action."

Valerie Fellows, a Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman in Washington, said she did not have the lawsuit in front of her and could not comment on its specifics.

America's polar bears are found in Alaska. The Beaufort Sea stock off Alaska's northern coast is estimated at 2,000 animals. The Bering-Chukchi stock off Alaska's northwest coast, a population shared with Russia, is estimated at 2,000 to 5,000.

There is no firm count of polar bears, and the lawsuit did not indicate how many may have been lost because of retreating ice.

In September, the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center, NASA and the University of Washington announced a "stunning reduction in Arctic sea ice at the end of the northern summer."

Source: Associated Press

I don't know that importing a skin is going to be the issue!

If somehow they get this "threatened" staus through, there will be no hunting of the polar bear, and hunting in it's territory may well be affected as well, regardless of quary.
It will likely prevent any drilling, or other developement.

These same morons have all but stopped the take of mountain lion, and have stopped beatr hunting with dogs. Now the lions are killing people, and the states using up game management $$'s to relocate trouble causing bears. If we as hunters don't get with it soon as a concerned, organized group, there will be less to get with period! Nate

I would disagree that it is a dumb question. The answer, as with all things legal, is 'it depends.' If the USFWS should list the polar bear, and just because they are petiitoned to doesn't mean that they will, they may list them as 'threatened' in Alaska and its waters only. Then there would be nothing on the books dealing with Canadian bears (and it is the Marine Mammal Protection Act that makes it a racist deal in the US where only Alaska Natives get to hunt bears). Even if they should include Canadian polar bears as 'threatened,' the USFWS can recognize Canadian management as being good stuff and let the bears in anyway, with the appropriate permits. On the other hand, they can prohibit them from coming into this country as they did for so many years.

With a political football such as this, the bears and their hunters will inevitably be the losers.