by Mark Sproxton
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 12/97) - NWT polar bears could soon be caught in an American court battle.

The Humane Society of the U.S. is preparing a legal challenge against U.S. regulations that now allow American trophy hunters to bring polar bear furs across the Canadian-U.S. border.

The animal rights group disagrees with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services' account of how polar bears are managed in the NWT.

The government agency has concluded the bears can be harvested without threatening their survival.

The Humane Society, however, doesn't believe there is enough information on the state of bear populations to make informed decisions on hunts, said Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist with the Washington, D.C.-based group.

Recent changes to U.S. regulations allow hunters to take back pelts as long as they were taken from one of five specified polar bear populations. There are 13 polar bear populations in the NWT.

The Humane Society is concerned that allowing trophy pelts to be taken across the border will lead to illegal trade in polar bear parts, such as gall bladders, said Rose.

American hunters can pay over $20,000 each to travel to communities such as Resolute to hunt for a polar bear.

"I find this very exploitive," Rose said. "I'm not trying to begrudge the communities anything, but when you put that value on an animal, the pressure is overwhelming."

Qutsiktumiut Outfitting in Resolute is one company that caters to southern-based sport hunters. It has four guides and four drivers that take the hunters on 10-day adventures.

The sport hunting venture generates thousands of outside dollars for the community and creates seasonal employment opportunities. This year, 20 hunters were scheduled to visit the Cornwallis Island community.

In the entire NWT, the polar bear quota is 535 per year. The quota is divided among communities near polar bear populations. The quota per community depends on the size of the nearby polar bear population.

Norway, Greenland, Russia, the U.S. and Canada are the only countries with polar bears. The NWT, which is home to more than half the world's polar bear population, is the lone jurisdiction where sport polar bear hunts are allowed.

(Alaskan Inuit, however, are allowed to hunt polar bears for subsistence purposes.)

There are about 15,000 polar bears in Canada, the vast majority in the NWT.

Hunters who have taken bears from the five specified populations and have kept the pelts in deep freeze for a decade or more are also allowed to transport the pelt across the 60th parallel.