Norway Summit to Debate Cutback in Polar Bear Hunts

Hunters kill 3% of polar bears each year
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 16, 2009 4:01 AM CDT
Norway Summit to Debate Cutback in Polar Bear Hunts
The US, Russia and Greenland allow Inuits to hunt polar bears, and Canada also allows hunting by sportsmen.   (AP Photo/WCS, Julie Larsen Maher)

World leaders meet tomorrow in Norway to consider reducing polar bear hunting, reports the Independent. Conservation organizations estimate the polar bear population, particularly hard hit by global warming, will drop two-thirds to the brink of extinction over the next 50 years. Greenland, the US and Russia permit hunting by Inuit natives, and Canada also allows hunting by sportsmen. The hunts claim 700 polar bears annually, 3% of the total population. Critics consider such hunts "unsustainable harvests."
(More polar bears stories.)

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