https://www.nomenugget.com/new...-bear-woolley-lagoon


LINK HAS PHOTO OF POLAR BEAR.



Hunter harvests summer polar bear at Woolley Lagoon

Thu, 06/26/2025 - 7:14pm admin
By Sarah Manriquez

When Jared Wiggins saw a polar bear walking toward him near his camp by Woolley Lagoon last week, he knew what was at stake. “It was either him or me,” Wiggins said. “And it wasn’t gonna be me. Not that day, anyways.”
Wiggins, 30, is a lifelong Nome resident and a descendant of King Islanders—an Iñupiat community that once lived on King Island in the Bering Sea about 40 miles offshore. For generations, King Islanders were known for their unmatched skill as subsistence hunters and ivory carvers, and polar bear hunting was among their most respected traditions.
Despite that legacy, Wiggins had never seen a nanuq in the wild. Few in this region have. The last time someone from his family harvested a polar bear was in the 1980s, during a winter hunt near Cape Woolley.
Nearly four decades later, Wiggins found himself face to face with one.
The juvenile male bear—over six feet long and appearing in good health—was first spotted by a family member near Woolley Lagoon, roughly 40 miles west of Nome. Wiggins was en route to camp when a relative waved him down and told him there was a polar bear near the barge out at camp.
“[The bear] was about three-quarters of a mile from my cabin,” Wiggins said.
Wiggins raised his Ruger .243 rifle and took the first shot. The bear bolted toward the ocean, disappearing into the surf as it tried to swim away. He fired again. After the bear went down, his cousin helped him pull the body from the water and onto the shore.
In a region where sea ice has typically retreated by June, polar bear sightings near Nome are exceptionally rare but not unheard of.
While experts were unavailable to comment before press time, studies have documented that shrinking sea ice, nutritional stress, and disrupted migration patterns can push polar bears into unfamiliar territory, including human-inhabited coastlines.
But for Wiggins’ family, this wasn’t just an anomaly. It was a cultural revival.
“It’s powerful,” said Jessica Russell, Wiggins’ older sister. “Our people were known for polar bear hunting.”
Russell explained that when a hunter returned with a bear, the community would hold a celebration of life in honor of the the animal’s spirit.
“After they removed the skull, they’d drill a small hole in it, hang it upside down, and fill it with water,” she said. “Then they’d sing polar bear dances—and the hunter had to stay up and dance the entire time, until the last drop of water fell.”
That tradition—passed down through stories—will soon come alive again.
A date hasn’t been set, but in about three weeks, Wiggins and his family plan to host a celebration of life in honor of the bear.
“Jared’s going to stay up and dance,” Rusell said. “That’s how we pay respect. We don’t just take. We give back.”
Wiggins intends to keep the bear’s hide intact and send it off to the taxidermist in Anchorage.
Processing the animal has been grueling. Polar bears are built for the Arctic. Their hides are thick. Their fat is dense.
“This is ten times harder than working on a seal,” Russell said. “And I’ve done both.”
Processing the bear has been a family affair with many helping hands to assist. There is no waste. The meat will be shared. The story will be told. A tradition will continue.

.243 on a polar bear, now there is a brave man.

Does not sound like a "Him or me " situation to me but I wasn't there.