NUNAVUT - Environment Canada has banned the export of Baffin Bay polar bears but may change its mind if Nunavut proves it is addressing concerns over the sustainability of that population's harvest.

A mother polar bear and two cubs on the ice outside Grise Fiord in 2006. Environment Canada has banned the export of bears from the Baffin Bay population due to concerns of over-harvesting. - photo courtesy of Matthew Mader

Nunavut Environment Minister Daniel Shewchuk said the ban did not come as a surprise.

"We knew that it was being talked about and we knew that Environment Canada was going to strongly recommend that there be a ban on export until we proved that we were taking management action," he said.

"I feel very confident that we can overcome this and change this."

A report released by Environment Canada in December stated "export permits will not be issued for polar bear harvested in the Baffin Bay management unit."

The report also states that if the total allowable harvest is reduced, the export ban could be removed.

"A newly established harvest quota may address conservation concerns and allow for consideration of international export as non-detrimental," the report read.

The ban came into effect on Jan. 1, according to the Government of Nunavut's director of wildlife Drikus Gissing.

"Environment Canada agreed that they would review the ban once we can prove we are addressing the current situation," Gissing said.

He said the department expects Environment Canada will reconsider the ban after the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board determines whether the quota for hunting polar bears in Baffin Bay will be reduced.

"We made it very clear that we're working on the situation in Baffin Bay and as soon as the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board has made a decision and we can identify that we are taking positive actions, we would expect them to review their position," he said.

The NWMB's decision about the quota must be approved by Shewchuk before it comes into effect, according to the board's acting director of wildlife Charlotte Sharkey.

The NWMB had made a decision and presented it to Shewchuk earlier this year, but it was rejected.

"A hearing was held in September 2009 and a decision was made on the total allowable harvest, which was then sent to the GN minister of environment, who disallowed the decision," Sharkey said.

Last year the wildlife board considered reducing the polar bear harvest to 64 from 105 for Clyde River, Pond Inlet and Qikiqtarjuaq. The quota was raised to 105 bears from 64 in 2004.

The board will evaluate Shewchuk's reason for rejecting the decision and present another after consultations take place mid-February, Sharkey said.

The lack of information about the population of bears in Baffin Bay is what prompted the federal government's decision, Shewchuk said.

"At this point in time, the Baffin Bay ban was initiated by Environment Canada to show the world that we are managing our polar bear population properly," he said. "Because of information we had on Baffin Bay and because of the Greenland harvest being unknown, it is unsure what that population is."

Shewchuk said a meeting with representatives from Greenland was scheduled to take place in Ottawa at the end of January. Nunavut, Canada and Greenland signed a memorandum of understanding to monitor polar bears in Kane Basin and Baffin Bay last October.

"Part of that discussion is to do some research to get a better handle on the population status of Baffin Bay," he said.