Arctic warming threatens polar bears, scientists warn

Polar bear populations are likely to be severely reduced by Arctic warming, warns an international group of scientists studying the animals.

They say the total population of polar bears may decline by more than 30 per cent within the next 35 to 50 years.

For this reason, many members of the Polar Bear Specialist Group are questioning whether now is the best time for Nunavut to change its polar bear management practices.

The specialist group is made of scientists from five circumpolar countries who meet every three to five years to review and exchange information on polar bear management throughout the Arctic.

Its members are concerned by a decision earlier this year by Nunavut to increase polar bear harvest quotas by more than 100 animals and adopt a new management plan based on a combination of scientific and traditional knowledge.

“We have to go slowly because we are moving to a time that we have not seen before, with the effects of climate change,” said Andrew Derocher of the University of Calgary, president of the specialist group.

Those at the groups’s recent meeting in Seattle want to see a GN document outlining the traditional knowledge used to set the new quotas.

“Where are the reports?” asked a delegate from Norway.

But the GN, represented by Mitch Taylor, the Department of Environment’s polar bear biologist, did not present any report on traditional knowledge about polar bears.

“They have not seen the local and traditional knowledge documentation that would allow them to view it and integrate it with the more scientific approach,” said Derocher.

“This report would say: ‘Where exactly are hunters seeing more bears? In which areas are they seeing more? Can we see a map? How many hunters said it was increasing? How many said it was decreasing in their area?’”

At the specialists’ meeting there were delegates from each of the five nations, Canada, Denmark-Greenland, Norway, Russia and the United States, which signed the 1973 Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears.

Also attending as invited specialists were representatives from the Greenland Home Rule Government, Alaska Nanuuq Commission, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the Inuvialuit Game Council and Inuvialuit Wildlife Management Advisory Council, along with other groups.

The group’s recommendations are meant to encourage “best practices” in polar bear management, said Derocher, because the 1973 agreement is only a “goodwill document” that has no force in law.

“Rather than to try and rap somebody’s knuckles, the resolutions are more of an encouragement to respond,” Derocher said.

The specialist group approved several resolutions when it met in June:

* Polar bear harvests should be increased on the basis of scientific and traditional knowledge “only if supported by scientifically-collected information;”
* Hunting of polar bears in Western Hudson Bay needs to be reduced because a survey shows numbers have fallen from 1,100 in 1995 to 950 in 2004;
* Denmark should coordinate a circumpolar study of the health effects from pollution on the vital organs of polar bears.

The group also said the U.S. and Russia need to cooperate better on management of polar bears in Alaska and Chukotka, where the hunt is growing due to poor economic conditions and a thriving black market for animal parts.

The grops wants more controls on Arctic shipping, as well as the establishment of a nature refuge on Wrangell Island, between Alaska and Siberia, where 600 female polar bears den every year.

“One oil spill when the bears are coming ashore, and that would be catastrophic for the population,” Derocher said.

Bilge dumping and ice breaking by vessels traveling through the Arctic waters also don’t bode well for polar bears, particularly when their survival is also impacted by climate change, Derocher said.

The world’s polar bears are distributed in 19 sub-populations over the Arctic. The total number of polar bears around the world is thought to be less than 25,000.

The specialist group concluded that the International Union of Conservation’s “red list” classification of polar bear should be upgraded from “least concern” to “vulnerable.”

“It didn’t matter if you were talking to a scientist from Russia or Greenland, it was very clear that in every jurisdiction that they are seeing changes in the distribution of the bears — that the condition in the sea has changed, and they are seeing changes in the distribution of bears,” Derocher said.