MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION — Annual Report for 1992 
The Act authorizes the Fish and Wildlife Service to 
prescribe regulations necessary to monitor the num- 
ber, age, and sex of polar bears taken by Alaska 
Natives, but prohibits limiting the take unless it is 
wasteful or the affected population is depleted. 
The Beaufort Sea polar bear population is hunted 
by Natives from northwestern Canada as well as 
Alaska. If not regulated effectively, such hunting, by 
itself and in combination with other activities, could 
cause the population to decline below its optimum 
sustainable population level. Recognizing this, the 
Fish and Game Management Committee of Alaska’s 
North Slope Borough and the Inuvialuit Game Council 
of Canada’s Northwest Territories entered into an 
agreement in January 1988 to govern cooperatively 
the hunting of polar bears in the area between Icy 
Cape, Alaska, and the Baillie Islands, Canada. 
Among other things, the agreement calls for 
protection of cubs, females with cubs, and all bears 
inhabiting or constructing dens. It also prohibits 
hunting at certain times of the year and provides that 
a harvest quota, based upon the best available scientif- 
ic evidence, be established annually. Quotas are to be 
allocated equitably between Natives in Alaska and 
Canada, and data are to be collected and shared on the 
number, location, age, and sex of bears killed. As a 
matter of Federal law, the agreement has no legal 
status in Alaska or Canada and does not provide for 
enforcement and penalties in Alaska. Thus, its 
success depends upon voluntary compliance. Also, it 
does not apply to Native subsistence hunting of polar 
bears in Alaska south of Icy Cape. 
Under the terms of the agreement, the initial 
annual harvest allocation was 38 bears each for 
Canadian and Alaska Natives. During the first 
harvest year (1988-1989), Alaska hunters took 58 
bears, exceeding the harvest limit by 20 animals, 
while the Canadian harvest totaled 32 bears. During 
the 1989-1990 harvest, 24 bears were taken in the 
Alaska sector and 34 in Canada, both less than the 
established allocation. It is believed that the reduced 
take was due to an increased awareness of the terms 
of the agreement, resulting from distribution of infor- 
mational brochures and posters and an extensive 
communications effort. Subsequent polar bear har- 
vests have remained within the allocated guidelines. 
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Alaska Natives took 19 bears in 1990-1991 and 30 
bears in 1991-1992, and Canadian hunters took 15 and 
32 bears, respectively, during the two harvest years. 
As noted earlier, a second polar bear population, 
the western or Bering/Chukchi Seas population, 
occurs in Alaska and has traditionally been used by 
Native peoples of both Alaska and Chukotka, Russia. 
In its 28 June letter forwarding the draft polar bear 
conservation plan, the Commission identified the 
possible need for a cooperative program between the 
United States and Russia to manage the take of polar 
bears from the Bering/Chukchi Seas population. By 
letter of 9 November 1992 the regional director of the 
Fish and Wildlife Service’s Alaska Region advised the 
Commission that on behalf of the United States he had 
signed a protocol with the Russian Ministry of Ecolo- 
gy and Natural Resources on 22 October 1992. The 
intent of the protocol is to develop a management 
agreement for polar bears in the Bering and Chukchi 
Seas region. 
The protocol recognizes the unique role of the 
Bering/Chukchi Seas polar bear population in the lives 
of indigenous Native peoples of Alaska and Chukotka, 
in preserving and developing traditional ways of life, 
and in maintaining the “ecological security” of those 
regions. It specifies that the agreement to be devel- 
oped should place priority on cooperative efforts, such 
as exchanging ecological information on the status of 
the Bering and Chukchi Seas polar bear population 
with particular emphasis on evaluating population 
abundance and regulation of its use; cooperating with 
international and Native organizations whose activities 
are connected with the study and conservation of polar 
bears; bio-monitoring using coordinated methodolo- 
gies; joint field research; coordinating polar bear 
conservation and management activities; and exchang- 
ing information on environmental legislation. 
The protocol calls on both Governments to create 
special working groups composed of representatives of 
both government agencies and Native peoples to 
prepare proposals for such an agreement, and to 
convene a meeting of working groups in Russia in 
1993 to prepare a draft agreement. 
The Marine Mammal Commission, in consultation 
with its Committee of Scientific Advisors, is review- 
