Joint commission to meet on Chukchi polar bears
By: DAN JOLING
Polar bears in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast face an uncertain future because of climate warming. A U.S. and Russia commission aims to address short-term threats.The four-person commission, made up a federal and Native representatives from each country, will meet for three days in Moscow starting July 27 to discuss subsistence hunting and other issues for the polar bear population shared by the two countries in the waters north and just south of the Bering Strait.
The commission last year set a harvest limit of 58 split between the two sides. A main topic for the meeting will be how each side will make that work, said Eric Regehr, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife service biologist who serves on the commission's science advisory board.U.S. commissioners will present a draft harvest management plan proposed to begin the quota Jan. 1, 2013.
The commission was created by a treaty signed in 2000 and is significant for representing co-management across countries and cultures, said Rosa Meehan, the USFWS marine mammals manager in Alaska."It's the first effort in Russia that formally recognizes the Native people of Russia and involves them in a governmental process," she said.
The need for polar bear management across national boundaries was recognized more than three decades ago, Meehan said. Polar bears in the 1950s in the Chukchi and elsewhere were hammered by overhunting. A trip to Kotzebue on Alaska's northwest coast, Meehan said, would have revealed a fleet of small airplanes flown by professional guides taking out trophy hunters.
The five countries that oversee with polar bear populations, the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway and Denmark, in 1973 agreed to limit hunting and bear populations bounced back, Meehan said."It was a real success story," she said.The 1973 agreement envisioned joint management of shared polar bear populations such as the treaty eventually signed by the United States and Russia. Management to date has differed.
In Alaska, the USFWS has co-managed polar bears with the Alaska Nanuuq Commission, which represents villages along the state's north coasts. The federal Marine Mammal Protection Act, recognizing the importance of aboriginal rights, allowed for unlimited take of polar bears unless the harvest was causing the population to diminish.
Nanuuq Commission executive director Charlie Johnson, Alaska's Native representative on the U.S.-Russia Polar Bear Commission, said Alaska Natives agreed to the quota in exchange for a seat at the table on how polar bears will be managed. Polar bears remain of huge cultural importance to villages, and even a food source. "Sometimes it is the only protein that's available out in some of the villages, particularly on the Russian side," he said by phone from Nome.
In Moscow, he hopes to work out the details of how the quota will be administered in Alaska and how subsistence hunting will be reintroduced in Chukotka."We're hoping that we can help the Native people of Chukotka return to their traditional, cultural use of polar bears," Johnson said. "Presently they can't do that." Russia had officially banned polar bear hunting since 1956, but through the early 2000s, the annual illegal take was estimated at 70 to 300 bears. Johnson contends much of that was done by non-Natives illegally selling hides.
Giving Native Russian villagers in the Chukotka region a say in management and conservation issues is expected to bring that number down."The status quo hasn't worked," Regehr said. "A lot of bears have gotten killed under the status quo. We're trying something new that involves a partner that hasn't been actively engaged in the past."
The Chukchi Sea is remote even by Alaska standards and past relations. The new quota numbers are conservative and based on scientific information that scientists acknowledge is not very good. They continue to use an estimate population range of 2,000 to 5,000 bears for the Alaska-Chukotka population.
The USFWS began serious studies of Chukchi polar bears in 2008. Preliminary results, Regehr said, indicate that the population for now is doing well, in contrast to Southern Beaufort Sea polar bears off Alaska's north coast, which have demonstrated nutritional problems tied to climate warming, such as low birth rates and undersize cubs.
The main conservation challenge for polar bears, Regehr said, continues to be lost sea ice habitat anticipated from climate warming. Polar bears use sea ice to hunt their main prey, ringed seals. The summer low for Arctic sea ice, measured each September, averaged 2.7 million square miles from 1979 to 2000. Sea ice in recent years has fallen far below that, including a record low 1.65 million square miles in summer 2007. Climate models predict summer sea ice in Arctic waters could disappear by 2030.
The commission last year set a harvest limit of 58 split between the two sides. A main topic for the meeting will be how each side will make that work, said Eric Regehr, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife service biologist who serves on the commission's science advisory board.U.S. commissioners will present a draft harvest management plan proposed to begin the quota Jan. 1, 2013.
The commission was created by a treaty signed in 2000 and is significant for representing co-management across countries and cultures, said Rosa Meehan, the USFWS marine mammals manager in Alaska."It's the first effort in Russia that formally recognizes the Native people of Russia and involves them in a governmental process," she said.
The need for polar bear management across national boundaries was recognized more than three decades ago, Meehan said. Polar bears in the 1950s in the Chukchi and elsewhere were hammered by overhunting. A trip to Kotzebue on Alaska's northwest coast, Meehan said, would have revealed a fleet of small airplanes flown by professional guides taking out trophy hunters.
The five countries that oversee with polar bear populations, the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway and Denmark, in 1973 agreed to limit hunting and bear populations bounced back, Meehan said."It was a real success story," she said.The 1973 agreement envisioned joint management of shared polar bear populations such as the treaty eventually signed by the United States and Russia. Management to date has differed.
In Alaska, the USFWS has co-managed polar bears with the Alaska Nanuuq Commission, which represents villages along the state's north coasts. The federal Marine Mammal Protection Act, recognizing the importance of aboriginal rights, allowed for unlimited take of polar bears unless the harvest was causing the population to diminish.
Nanuuq Commission executive director Charlie Johnson, Alaska's Native representative on the U.S.-Russia Polar Bear Commission, said Alaska Natives agreed to the quota in exchange for a seat at the table on how polar bears will be managed. Polar bears remain of huge cultural importance to villages, and even a food source. "Sometimes it is the only protein that's available out in some of the villages, particularly on the Russian side," he said by phone from Nome.
In Moscow, he hopes to work out the details of how the quota will be administered in Alaska and how subsistence hunting will be reintroduced in Chukotka."We're hoping that we can help the Native people of Chukotka return to their traditional, cultural use of polar bears," Johnson said. "Presently they can't do that." Russia had officially banned polar bear hunting since 1956, but through the early 2000s, the annual illegal take was estimated at 70 to 300 bears. Johnson contends much of that was done by non-Natives illegally selling hides.
Giving Native Russian villagers in the Chukotka region a say in management and conservation issues is expected to bring that number down."The status quo hasn't worked," Regehr said. "A lot of bears have gotten killed under the status quo. We're trying something new that involves a partner that hasn't been actively engaged in the past."
The Chukchi Sea is remote even by Alaska standards and past relations. The new quota numbers are conservative and based on scientific information that scientists acknowledge is not very good. They continue to use an estimate population range of 2,000 to 5,000 bears for the Alaska-Chukotka population.
The USFWS began serious studies of Chukchi polar bears in 2008. Preliminary results, Regehr said, indicate that the population for now is doing well, in contrast to Southern Beaufort Sea polar bears off Alaska's north coast, which have demonstrated nutritional problems tied to climate warming, such as low birth rates and undersize cubs.
The main conservation challenge for polar bears, Regehr said, continues to be lost sea ice habitat anticipated from climate warming. Polar bears use sea ice to hunt their main prey, ringed seals. The summer low for Arctic sea ice, measured each September, averaged 2.7 million square miles from 1979 to 2000. Sea ice in recent years has fallen far below that, including a record low 1.65 million square miles in summer 2007. Climate models predict summer sea ice in Arctic waters could disappear by 2030.
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