Green Times

Global warming is putting Dave Mason’s $40,000 polar bear expeditions at risk.The Bush administration is considering a proposal to declare the animals a threatened species. Protected status would make it illegal to import bear trophies, eliminating a selling point for Mason and other brokers peddling 10- to 12-day Canadian Arctic adventures to U.S. hunters.

“Who wants to pay that kind of money for that kind of hunt and not bring your trophy back?” says Jerry Bateman, who paid $25,000 to Mason’s Adventures in the Wild for a polar hunt in 2006. Bateman, a retired General Motors Corp. quality-control inspector, returned with an 8 1/2-foot bear that’s now stuffed and displayed in his Howe, Indiana, home.

The species would be the first the U.S. has protected from global warming. Polar bears, the world’s largest land predators, are losing habitat and access to food as sea ice melts. Further Arctic thawing might kill two-thirds of the animals by mid- century, the U.S. Geological Survey estimates.

Canada is home to about 60 percent of the global polar bear population of 22,000 to 25,000. The state of Alaska says the number rebounded from about 10,000 after global hunting restrictions were imposed in the 1970s.

Polar bear trophies are hard to miss: An average male stands 8 to 10 feet (2.4 to 3 meters) tall and weighs 550 to 1,700 pounds (250 to 770 kilograms). They sustain their bulk mostly by feeding on seals that they catch on the ice.

Farther to Swim

The animals may be losing weight as the breakup of sea ice shortens their seal-hunting season, and drowning deaths may increase as the bears swim from ice sheets that have drifted farther from land, U.S. government researchers say.

“Hunters come with the goal in mind to make a rug or to take a life-size mount back with them,” says Mason, whose Adventures in the Wild is based in Wasilla, Alaska. He opposes an import ban and doesn’t think global warming threatens the bears.

Hunting the animals for sport is outlawed in the U.S., though indigenous groups are allowed to kill them for food. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service charges $1,025 for permits to import trophies and has granted 953 since 1997. Only Canada allows sport hunting, according to the Polar Bear International conservation group.

Restrictions may help preserve the population, says M. Sanjayan, a Missoula, Montana-based lead scientist for the Nature Conservancy. The Bush administration delayed its decision Jan. 7, saying more time was needed to review the proposal.

‘Precarious Habitats’

“It would certainly help their prospects,” Sanjayan says. “Hunting itself is not the driver toward extinction, but it could exacerbate the situation given how precarious polar bear habitats are today.”

The $40,000 that sportsmen pay outfitters such as Mason covers lodging, food, heated tent camps, two registered guides and a sled-dog team. Organizers hire members of indigenous groups including the Inuit, whom the Canadian government allows to lead expeditions.

Reaching the hunting grounds takes about two days and multiple flights from New York, adding about $3,000 in airfare to the expense. For those who kill a bear — no guarantee — the packages often include removing and preparing the hides. Canadian hunt fees run about C$800 ($790).

Demand has increased since the U.S. said last year it may declare polar bears threatened, says Boyd Warner, owner of hunt outfitter Adventure Northwest in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. The U.S. issued 113 polar-bear import permits in 2007, up from 71 in 2006 and 61 in 2005.

Reliance on Income

Indigenous groups that profit from the expeditions oppose the U.S. proposal. Sixty-nine percent of Canada’s visiting hunters are from the U.S. Each outing contributes an average of C$19,000 to local communities, Canadian government data show.

“Our hunters and guides benefit economically, and we are able to continue with our culture, enjoy the benefits of what we use and ensure that this is done in a responsible and sustainable manner,” Duane Smith, president of Inuit Circumpolar Council in Canada, said in a statement. The group represents Inuit in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia.

Expedition companies take commissions of as much as 20 percent, Warner says, or $8,000 on a $40,000 hunt. U.S. protection would cut his revenue by a third, he says.

Bateman, 65, says $2,500 of gear, including a sleeping bag like the ones U.S. Navy Seals use, failed to keep him warm on a 10-day hunt.

He killed his bear with two shots from a 300 Winchester Magnum rifle on the trip’s last day. It took assistance from three companions to roll the bear onto a steel sled to get it back to camp.

“It was a thrilling experience,” Bateman says.

Adventures in the Wild’s Mason says he is preparing to refocus his business on caribou hunting and African safaris. Luring hunters to the Arctic will be tough if they can’t bring kills home, he says.

“If they shut it down, it will be a total devastation,” he says.
Source: Bloomberg