Polar Bears on the cheap?

[Jamie]

The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that it is listing the polar bear as threatened, a move that makes it illegal to import polar bear trophies. Barring an unforeseen development, the period of American hunting of polar bears is over. Moreover, unless new wiggle room can be found, hunters who have already shot bears but not imported them are out of luck. Their bears cannot be imported.

Paid Advertising
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The T. Jeffrey Safari Company
Your Namibia Specialist
Sign Up For Our Free Newsletter
Click Here


The listing was announced this afternoon by Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, who says he decided to list the bear because scientific evidence led him to believe that the melting of Arctic ice in recent years was so serious that the polar bear is likely to be endangered in the future, specifically within 45 years. He conceded at the news conference that the bear was not in danger at present, that populations have more than doubled since the 1960s from 12,000 to more than 25,000. However, he says the melting of Arctic ice created a circumstance that made it appropriate for him to list the bear.

We will have more on the listing decision in next month's issue of The Hunting Report, along with an analysis of the steps John J. Jackson, III, of Conservation Force plans to take to try to exempt Canadian bears from the listing and the efforts he plans to make to get already harvested bears into the US. Jackson estimates there are $3 million worth of bears that have been harvested by Americans that cannot now be imported. - Don Causey


So.. I wonder if this will cause the Prices of Polar Bear hunts to drop to a acceptable level???
I feel really bad for the guys who have the bears up here just waiting for them to get home.

Jamie

[heavy chevy]

The sky is falling henny penny. I guess us Canadians who can't possibly afford a Polar hunt should be happy.

[thumper]

This was orchestrated by the environmentalists who want to force the U.S. into dealing with global warming - as they are required to do, now that it's given as a reason for 'threatening' a legally protected 'threatened' species.
With the doubling of polar bear numbers over the past few decades, they're a shining example of *successful* management - but that's not good enough for the eco-zealots.

I feel sorry for the Inuit who are caught in the middle. This is a real kick to the communities that rely on the polar bear hunt for income, and have taken great care in managing the hunt to spread the revenue out amongst their communities - while using dog-sleds and 'home-stays' to keep the hunt an authentic arctic experience. And without a use for their dog-sleds, you can kiss their sled dogs and the culture that goes with them goodbye as well.

First it was the European zealots wiping out fur trapping and sealing as viable livelihoods, now it's Americans removing the sustainable harvest of a growing population of polar bears as a livelihood. The Inuit are the ones who should be declared a *threatened* species!

[Jamie]

Here is the reply by SCI

Department of the Interior Announces Polar Bear as Threatened

Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced today that the polar bear would be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. SCI has publicly condemned the ruling. Please see the Press Release sent by SCI this afternoon below.





For Immediate Release

May 14, 2008



SCI Condemns U.S. Fish and Wildlife Decision to List Polar Bear as Threatened Under ESA



Washington, D.C. - Safari Club International President Dennis Anderson today condemned the decision of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to list all populations of the polar bear as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). “Because of the uncertainty surrounding the extent of climate change and its impact on the polar bear, the listing was not warranted under ESA standards,” said Anderson.



Currently, polar bear population numbers are at or near all-time highs. Most populations in Canada are either stable or increasing. The FWS is relying on speculative computer modeling and limited professional judgment to conclude nonetheless that the polar bear will be threatened with extinction 45 years in the future.



The listing means that imports into the United States of polar bear trophies legally hunted in Canada will no longer be allowed as of the effective date of the listing, which will be the date that the rule is published in the Federal Register. Before the listing, the law permitted imports from six populations of polar bears in Canada. The FWS previously had determined that the sport hunting programs for each of these six populations is “based on scientifically sound quotas ensuring the maintenance of the affected population stock at a sustainable level.” The new listing rule recognizes the conservation benefits of sport hunting and importation, but claims the Marine Mammal Protection Act bars imports once a species is listed under the ESA.



As SCI demonstrated in comments filed with the FWS, the hunting of these populations supports conservation and sound management in a number of ways, including the payment of $1,000 for each import permit to support research in Alaska and Russia. In addition, the cash supplied to the local native communities by U.S. hunters encourages sound management and conservation by Canadian authorities. With the listing, all these benefits are lost. In addition, the listing will have no effect on polar bear mortality through hunting, as the native communities will simply harvest for subsistence purposes those bears not harvested by U.S. hunters for import. SCI hopes to work with the FWS to reinstate the ability to import trophies under the ESA and Marine Mammal Protection Act.



The listing of populations in the Canadian archipelago, including several from which imports are currently allowed, is particularly unjustified. Even the government’s own speculative computer modeling does not predict a threat of extinction to these populations in the next 45 years.



To allow trophy importation in the future, the FWS will need to make a formal finding that sport hunting enhances the survival of the species. In addition to exploring options for challenging the listing, SCI hopes to work with the FWS to enable the agency to make this finding and to thereby quickly reinstate the ability to import trophies under the ESA and Marine Mammal Protection Act.



“The ESA is ill-suited to address climate change or other perceived threats to the polar bear. The biggest loss brought about by this listing will be to polar bear conservation and management, because the funding provided by U.S. hunters will dry up,” Anderson concluded.



Contact

Nelson Freeman

Government Affairs

and Public Relations

Safari Club International

nfreeman@safariclub.org

[brownbomber]

x2 on the inuit. tough situation.
same goes for the anti fur campaigns. never take into consideration that lots of these people inuit, white, native or otherwise do this to live not as a hobby. they live up north and that is all they know, they are not worldly or desire to be worldly. they just want to provide for their families and circumstances beyond their control destroy their livleyhood, yeah promote ecotourism employ 5 people that the other 100 guys without a way to get by can beg off of.

[surhuntsalot]

Just another decision confirming that the new threat to hunting and fishing is no longer only Greenpeace and Peta, but our own Fish And Wildlife. Unfortunatly if something isn't threatend, endangered, collapsed, or a species at risk, it's hard for them to get funding. Why would the government put much funding towards a Grizzly bear population that is stable or increasing. The same lies true to our fish. Research data is clearly showing a much healthier sturgeon population in the NSR, yet the push is still going forward to have them put on the endangered species list. Once that happens, good luck on ever getting it changed back no matter what the research shows. It's a shame that the public are the ones who pay the price for missinformation and rigged creel counts, simply in the name of funding preservation. God help us all if we can't find a way to hold the keepers of our fish and wildlife accountable for their decisions, and make them back up what they tell us.

[nekred]

It is very funny the decisions about resources are made by people who use the resource as a source of living to do research. Whetehr or not the research gets funded or not is if the animal becomes a media darling.

One thing I have seen is that with hunters using the media to promote the activity we love and partake in is one if the most powerful tools we have.

This is where media 100% dedicated to hunting and fishing becomes very important.....It gets our messgae out there that we are more informed on wildlife managment and true conservation than the "scientific experts" who means of living is from research funding and therefore they have to make it look that they need to conduct research to save an endangered animal....

Remember what i said about one species ata time, one hunter at a time.... That is how we will lose the ant-hunting war!....

Yesterday, grizzly bears, today polar bears, tomorrow....????....

Now you or i may not be able to afford a polar bear hunt but the people that can that just lost the opportunity we need to fight for because we will need them when we lose our piee of the pie and if we are indifferent to them,.... the favour will be returned....

[220swifty]

Gotta feel for the Inuit, there yearly income just got smashed.

Nekred, good point about fighting for those who can afford it. They may be in a different social class than most of us, but they are still hunters and sportsmen like the rest of us, and we need to stick together if we have any hope of winning this fight.

[nekred]

Plus we provide moral support... they can provide monetary support!...

[Jamie]

Nekred. Your 100% correct.

I have found SCI is the best method of that.

I get Emails every week explaing just what fights they are in to protect our rights. Now they have a office in Ottawa, they will be fighting the good fight here in Canada.

Jamie

[jjoaks]

its about oil list them and you cant drill just watched it on the news

[mac_xi@hotmail.com]

Being Inuit myself, I can attest to the fact that we are adapt to chaging circumstances very well. Although I think it sucks that polar bears are consdired a threatened species, the economic affect on the Inuit will be minimal. There are only a half dozen or so people who act as polar bear guides in my neck of the woods (tundra). However, the Inuit rarely hunt polarbears themselves so it may be the last straw in regards to keeping dogs as for travelling purposes. Eco tourism is a far larger income source across all the arctic, as well as hunting other game.