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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