62 



And then of course there are the people who shoot at anything that moves ( Ken- 

 yon, p. 282). There is evidence, however, that the principal cause of the tindis- 

 puted depletion of the abalone beds is, not sea otters, but too many fishermen 

 harvesting a limited resource (Kenyon, p. 130). 



The annual Federal budget for research on sea otters seems to hover around 

 $18,500. The AEO Milrow and Cannikin programs have augmented this budget 

 in recent vears, since the center of the Alaskan sea otters seem to be in the area 

 of Amchitka Island, where these nuclear "events" are taking place. We know 

 of one $20,000 research project funded by the AEC, and there may be others. 



POLAR BEAR 



Of all the marine mammals covered by the bills before the Subcommittee, 

 the polar bear {Ursus maritimtis) is the only one which can be said to be hunted 

 as a "game animal." Its only natural predator is man and other bears ; it has been 

 hunted for years by natives as a religious symbol and as a source of meat, and 

 more recently, by natives and trophy-hunters, for its hide. 



Five countries own land in which the polar bear is found today : Russia, 

 the United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway. It is not believed to den in 

 Alaska — the bears which are killed in this country are very likely Russian and 

 Canadian in origin, altJiough no one is certain. Similar uncertainties pervade 

 most of the discussions of facts relating to the polar bear. 



The size and composition of the polar bear population is not known. There 

 is learned scientific discussion as to whether the polar bear is one general, 

 circumpolar species, or whether there are two or more subsi>ecies within the 

 general classification. There is no agreement. The size of the population is thought 

 to be between 10 and 20 thousand, which seems a fairly large margin of error. 



The issue is complicated by a lawsuit presently pending in which Friends of 

 Animals is seeking to have the Secretary of the Interior place the polar bear 

 on the endangered species list. Interior has resisted, on the principal ground 

 that the status of the bear is not yet known, it has placed the polar bear in the 

 status of an animal with an undetermined status. This of course affords the 

 bears no protection at all. 



There have been at least three international conferences on the polar bear. 

 The first of these Was held in Fairbanks, Alaska in September 1965, and 

 reached no conclusions other than general statements of concern. The Russian 

 delegation attempted imsnccessfully to have a ban placed on the killing of bears, 

 or barring that, a five-year moratorium until more facts were known. There is 

 some evidence that the bears killed in the United States are principally Russian 

 in origin, which may serve to explain the nature of their concern. "Why", they 

 appear to be saying, "should we save the polar bear, and thereby forego a valuable 

 source of income, simply to have the bears which we save shot by American 

 trophy hunters?" 



Subsequent conferences were held under the auspices of tiie International Un- 

 ion for the Conserv^ation of Nature and Natural Resources (lUCN) in Morge.sJ 

 Switzerland, in 1968 and in 1970. A certain amount of research has been done by 

 the coimtries affected, singly and in concert, and more information seems to be 

 developing, although the basic questions appear to be as unresolved as they have 

 ever been. 



The Alaskan delegation at the 1965 meeting indicated their position that himt- 

 ing of the polar bear should be allowed to continue, in part on the basis that the 

 annual take of bears contributed some $4.50,000 to Alaska's economy. If problems 

 were later to appear, and it were to be shown that bear stocks were being over- 

 exploited, then the U.S. delegation stated that regulations would be enacted to 

 "limit tJie harvest within the annual recruitment." 



In support of their contention that polar bear stocks were not in danger, they 

 developed statistics to show that the bears being killed were from a "large 

 reservoir of adult males", and were not getting smaller in size. Had this been 

 the case, this might indicate that the hunters were cutting into the breeding 

 stock and were in fact overexploiting the resource. 



The picture has changed. The figures develoi>ed in Ala.ska from 1966 to 1969 

 and submitted at the 1970 lUCN conference showed that the average age of bears 

 killed in Alaska declined from 7.7 years old in 1966 to six years old in 1969. This 

 is, of course, not concluswc evidence, in the .scientific .sense, that the polar bear 

 is in trouble, but it suggests strongly that U.S. practices should be closely and 

 critically examined. 



