Polar bear hunting

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In 1973, Polar Bear hunting was regulated by The International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears (also known as the Oslo Agreement),^[1] which was signed by the five nations whose Arctic territory is inhabited by polar bears: USA, Canada, Norway, Greenland and Russia (then the USSR). This placed restrictions on recreational and commercial hunting (and completely banned hunting from aircraft and icebreakers).

Since 1973, Norway has had a complete ban on polar bear hunting. USA, Greenland and Russia allow hunting by the indigenous people.^[2] In these countries, as well as Canada, polar bear hunting is part of the indigenous culture.

Only Canada, which has the largest polar bear population, allows limited recreational hunting. Recreational hunters pay a substantial fee. In 2005 the Government of Nunavut increased the quota to 518 bears,^[3] despite protests from some scientific groups.^[4] In 2005 about 50 of that quota was sold to recreational hunters,^[5] the rest being hunted by the indigenous Inuit people. The Government of the Northwest Territories maintain their own quota of 72 - 103 bears within the Inuvialuit communities of which some are set aside for sports hunters.

Recreational Polar bear hunting is criticised by many groups as being cruel and unnecessary. They also argue that the species is too vulnerable to allow recreational hunting. Defenders of it argue that the hunting provides economic benefits to the local communities. Opponents counter that the economic benefits are too negligible to be taken into the equation.