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Recent Developments Concerning Polar Bear Habitat Protection 



Several recent developments have helped to underscore the need for Congress to 

 clarify the FWS' authority to protect essential polar bear habitat. On November 16, 

 1993, the FWS announced plans to develop a Polar Bear Habitat Conservation Strategy 

 (58 Fed. Reg. 60402) (Polar Bear Strategy).' The Polar Bear Strategy, if well designed 

 and fully implemented, has the potential to be an effective means of safeguarding 

 essential polar bear habitat. It can also assure that the United States acts in full 

 accordance with the habitat protection mandate contained in the Agreement on the 

 Conservation of Polar Bears. Finally, an effective Polar Bear Strategy would serve as a 

 model for other Arctic nations, which collectively have the responsibility of safeguarding 

 the world's polar bear populations. 



Congressional action to provide the FWS with additional authority to protect 

 polar bear habitat could not come at a more important time. Apart from the need to 

 clarify the legal basis for an effective Polar Bear Strategy, the Department of the Interior 

 and the State of Alaska continue to allow substantial oil and gas leasing in the waters off 

 the coast of northern Alaska. In recent years, respected individual scientists, the Marine 

 Mammal Commission and the FWS have all expressed concern about the potential 

 impacts of oil and gas activities on polar bear populations. Finally, an exhaustively 

 researched and comprehensive legal review, completed for the Marine Mammal 

 Commission just a few months ago, concluded that the FWS lacks affirmative authority 

 to regulate polar habitat under the MMPA. 



Biological Considerations in Protecting Habitat 



Polar bears inhabiting the U.S. Arctic are divided into two overlapping 

 populations. Both populations are located in the Arctic Ocean, adjacent to Alaska's 

 northern coast. The northern, or Beaufort Sea, population is estimated to be 1,800 

 individuals. The western, or Bering-Chukchi Sea, population includes about 3,200 

 animals. 2 Individuals in these populations spend most of their lives on pack ice well off 

 shore from the coast of northern Alaska. Bears in the Chukchi population make 

 extensive north-south migrations in the United States and Russian Territories. In the 

 Beaufort Sea, polar bears make extensive east-west movements between the United 



1 In a subsequent Federal Register notice (58 Fed. Reg. 68659) issued on December 28, 1993, the FWS 

 referred to the Strategy as a "Polar Bear Habitat Protection Strategy." 



2 M. Beattie, Testimony Before the House Subcommittee on Environment and Natural Resources 

 (February 10, 1994). 



