Time to Stop Canada's Polar Bear Hunt

The Center for Biological Diversity, a US conservation group, has filed a formal request with the Department of the Interior, CBC News reports. The group is calling for a ban on all Canadian wildlife product imports. The proposed ban is in protest against the recent decision of the Nunavut territorial government to increase this year’s quota on the polar bear hunt in one of the defined hunting regions.

It’s actually rather shocking that polar bears are still being legally killed for trophy hunts. They’re considered a threatened species; in fact, they’re the first species to be added to the endangered species list due to the threat from global warming. I think few enough people are aware that polar bear hunting is still legally sanctioned. If they were, we might by now have forced government tourism and game departments to get with the program.

We’ve covered this issue at Care2 already. Last year, Russia put a stop to their hunt. Canada, however, is still resisting pressure from conservationists to follow suit. The Arctic is a fragile ecosystem, and each year the environmental pressure of a changing climate is tougher on the polar bear population. Decreased sea ice has a direct effect on the ability of the bears to travel and hunt. And the danger of over-hunting, which is even putting the much larger harp seal populations at risk, are difficult to overstate.

Admittedly, this is somewhat of a sticky issue. The Inuit have lived in the Arctic for thousands of years in a sustainable way, never increasing their populations above what the land could support, and never over-hunting the species they depended on for food. Sustaining themselves on a purely carnivorous diet, they had to carefully manage caribou and seal populations, and never wasted any part of their kills.

The Inuit are one of the few indigenous groups in Canada that have still maintained much of their way of life since the New World was colonized by Europeans. Now, thanks to those of us down south, with our Hummers and Big Macs, Arctic species are at risk. And we’re telling the Inuit we need to step in and tell them what they can and can’t do.

It feels wrong, probably because we have done wrong to get to this state. But I don’t think it’s wrong to try to put on the brakes before these species disappear forever. And when we look a little more closely, the cultural reasons seem to pale before the enormous economic incentives of both hunts. Truthfully, the way these hunts are conducted now is very commercially sound, but not all that traditional. It’s not traditional to slaughter as many seals as can possibly be found, even though they won’t be consumed by the tribe.

The much smaller polar bear hunt, meanwhile, is conducted for trophy purposes. This again is not something that a people in harmony with their environment will sanction. And the money flowing in from these enterprises is not going just to the Inuit, either. Stephen Harper has steadfastly stood behind these hunts, but I feel confident cultural protection is not his real motivation.

If it were, though, just for the sake of argument, a question of preserving Inuit culture versus preserving these species, what then? Even if the direct result of conservation measures would be to impinge heavily on the Inuit way of life, I think we have to do so. The world is changing, and mitigating the damage will continue to require changing everyone’s way of life. Consider the alternative.

One way or another these hunts will stop. The only question is, will we stop them in time, or get a couple extra years out of them at the expense of wiping these species out forever?

Increased Arctic Shrubbery May Destroy Permafrost

Polar Bear Hunting Banned in Russia This Year

Photo credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

m S.

1:09PM PDT on May 24, 2012

Trophy hunting is disgusting Those so called hunters are nothing more than small men-if you want to call them that- who are looking to boost their egos Their real titles are GREEDY SELFISH MORONS

send a green star

Linda M.

9:38AM PDT on May 12, 2012

Oops..."support".
BTW JOE, don't blame an entire nation for the actions of a few. In addition, most of the hunters are AMERICAN. Look at the US record at home and abroad and you will see the US has nothing to be proud of....eh?

Valentina R.

9:29AM PDT on May 12, 2012

Stop killing bears, Canada. Seriously, you fail.

Maree Ann P.

12:15AM PDT on Apr 21, 2012

Can I say I hate guns, and trophy sports hunters,they do these things to make them feel big men, I was shot with an Airrifle once,and it hurt like buggery, and left a little hole in my thigh, the Kid who did it was taking a potshot at his sister missed and got me,there is nothing good about guns or Hunting!

eusebio v.

7:28AM PDT on Apr 16, 2012

Quando é que esse pais o Canada vai parar com essa matança dos ursos polares esses caçadores de troféus e fazendeiros que não têm compaixão olham para a ganacia e do egoismo o Canada deve proteger os Ursos Polares

Joe W.

9:48PM PDT on Apr 15, 2012

Just so you know Canada I boycott everything you produce or catch. If it says caught or made in Canada I buy elsewhere. Trophy hunting Polar Bears and clubbing baby seals. You sure are a proud country, eh?

Lee W.

7:50PM PDT on Apr 15, 2012

Now, trophy hunting is an atrocious, vile sport. To kill a creature for it's fur or to take to a taxidermist have no morals. Please don't pit hunters who use the food with trophy hunters.

7:47PM PDT on Apr 15, 2012

Hunters who hunt for food are not vile and certainly those who claim ranchers are vile have little understanding of ranchers. So generalities are absolutely foolish and help no one. Certainly, generalities based on assumptions and very little regard for fact have no real relevance in drafting legislation. Those who assume or think they know without doing thorough research (listening to anything PeTA or ALDF have to say doesn't count because they are both extremist, no...rabid animal rights activists who have little regard for truth and PeTA has slaughtered thousands of domesticated animals) are simply lemmings.

2:20PM PDT on Apr 15, 2012

WHEN IS THE MURDERING going to STOP? I loathe trophy hunters & , ranchers they have no compassion, only greed and selfishness

S R.

11:36AM PDT on Apr 15, 2012

Signed so many petitions, year after year - time to make this into history!