Greenland invites polar bear sports hunters

Greenland’s home rule government plans to open its polar hear hunt to tourists. Under existing rules, only Greenland residents who are professional hunters are permitted to kill polar bears. About 50 to 100 polar bears are killed annually, according to the tourist board.

“We expect that people who go after the really big trophies and who have earlier been on elephant hunts will come. And there is already a lot of interest in polar bear hunting,” Mads Skift, a consultant at Greenland’s national tourist board, told the Ritzau news service earlier this week.

Greenland’s Fishing and Hunting Directorate expects to have cleared the way for tourist polar bear hunts by the first half of the year, the news agency reported.

In the Times of Oman, a newspaper in the rich oil state of Oman, readers learned they can visit Greenland and hunt polar bears, while a hunting club in Denmark has already requested more information, tickets and a licence for the first polar bear hunt.

The reaction in many countries was not positive. The Daily Express in London said, “Sick tourist officials are inviting big game hunters to Greenland to shoot polar bears. Bloodthirsty tourists will pay £10,000 for a four-day expedition and to keep the bear skins as a trophy… local authorities want to cash in on the impending ban on fox hunting in England, which may see rich hunters looking for thrills abroad.”