NJheadhunter71

Tango, you missed the point I was trying to make. There is absolutly nothing that can be doneeven ifthe bear populationwas in trouble incertain areas,see how I said "certain areas"(unless you got a big ice maker). So unless you move them to an area that isn't melting as fast I don't see afix(and even that is not a solution) Asfar as allot of hunters not being greenies I beg to differ. It is just that allot of us are sick and tired of being manipulated by weird make no sense policy's that the polititions play at our hunting rights.Some of thepeople fighting for the rights of polar bearsshould redirect theirinitiative to the real problem. Shoot, we all should before its to late. SoI see no need to put them onthe list. As stated in an earlier post the population is up, its a fact.It is sort oflike compairing the Northeast US and WTdeer. They are losing alot of habitat each year. Does this mean we should stop hunting them? Or fix the real issue? My philosophy is why use a bandaid when eventualy it is going to fall off when you should just stitch it from the get go.

huntinglife

The reality of this legislation has very little to do with the polar bear and everything to do with politics. First off - If the polar bear is listed, I can still buy a polar bear tag and hunt polar bear in Canada! I just wont be able to bring the meat or the pelt home! Second - If the polar bear is listed, American hunters will not spend their hard earned dollars on polar bear tags, which hurts the Inuit tribes who count on that money to survive. Third - If the polar bear is listed, American conservation dollars will not be going to protecting the polar bear, because it is American hunters who spend the most dollars on real conservation and habitat protection. So called environmentalists spend most of their money on lawsuits and injunctions which do nothing but create stupid regulations and very little money on protecting habitat!

Last but not least, the Polar Bear is a being used in this situation as the poster child for Global Warming. As a hunter and a conservationist, I am all about wanting something done about Global Warming, I just want the appropriate agency(CONGRESS) to enact real legislation to fix the problem! The USF&WS is not the agency to use to fix global warming!

PoacherSLAYER9

I have hunted since age 12 mainly for birds such as pheasant and quail. I love the outdoors. I also have spent summers and other vacations volunteering for non-profits in their efforts to conserve open space. I am against hunting big game, specifically endangered species like silver back gorillas, cheetahs, elephants, tigers, wolverines, rhinos, or grizzly bears. Deer hunting I believe is appropriate in most cases, as an effective population control, because they can be detrimental to agriculture and private property. The types of animals I listed above are limited in numbers not only because of role in the food chain, but because of spineless, cigar puffing, "thrill seeking" retirees looking to get their rocks off in some exotic locale at the pull of a trigger. Now, don't begin to get the impression that I'm masquerading as some psycho vegan Liberal who works for Green Peace, because that's totally beside the fact. If you wondering what my political affiliation is its republican. So there haaaa, I support a group that likes the hunt, outdoors, and fishing... and is sometimes brilliant enough to shoot your own campaign sympathizer.

I'm really curious as to what is so fun in taking down such a majestic animal like a polar bear or zebra with a high powered rifle? Okay, so maybe I haven't experience this sort of thing before, but does the animal even have a chance against your 10x50 Bushnell on your .22/250 or 30/06 with ceramic tipped rounds? I realize taking down game of this variety takes a well place shot or sometime more, but the last time I checked gazelles didn't have 30mm rockets mounted on their backs or roloway monkeys with lazer grip mounted glocks. There maybe risk involved, but I find that sort of hard to believe from 100 or 200 yards out well armed. Or how about your thermal imaging game finder or monocular night vision system? Okay, so maybe your the crocodile dundee type who hunts old school with something like a smith and wesson .357 or better yet, just your old kabar you bought when you one day dreamed of being in the Marines. I am not going to disagree that it would be intense stalking a water buffalo in head high brush knowing they are within 50 yards and could gore you to death with a subtle shift in the wind.

But did you ever consider a prey that would be far more exhilirating to take down. One that thinks like you, hunts like you, and is perhaps armed like you? You know who I am talking about, that's right... man. You probably think I'm a sadistic freak by now, but I strongly believe there are other ways to enjoy nature than man having to assert authority in such an appalling way. If polar bears are becoming so overpopulated and tearing through your trash at home or threatening the Caribou or Elk herds in Northern Canada that's only the way man percieves erratic /chaotic nature of the natural world. As man has become domesticated through evolutionary processes, we have lost a sense of appreciation for the continual struggle for what survival requires. When we are stripped of stripped of the tools and machines of modern day with which we have become dependent we are nothing more than fragile creatures like all animals. In my humble opinion, I firmly believe that taking down a big game or endangered species for the sole purpose of sustenance, utilizing the entire animals entrails can be justified. Apex predators or endangered species are a small part of a big picture called biodiversity. Hunters of the poaching variety I guess just don't have any sense of value or respect for the actual integrity of complex ecosystems. I am going stop ranting for now, because I think I have ushered enough of my thoughts out and you probably think I'm just a pot-smoking hippy, nature channel guy. On that note, I'll leave you with one last statement. If I could hunt big game poachers that specifically target endangered animals I would... As cold, sinister, and extremely radical as that may sound, one less of them makes the world a more beautiful place. How can you justify the murder of an endangered animal for simply pleasure or prize?

maks_daddy

The problem with the polar bears and global warming is something called bio-accumulation. Salmon are hanging out around around port towns like seattle, vancouver and the like, that's where the food hangs out. salmon then travel up north where they are eaten by seals. seals are also coming more south to eat in the summer months. toxins from the ocean are ingested by the salmon, then by the seals and then the bears. salmon are staying around these warm water ports longer because they the water isn't getting as cold as fast. Anyway these polar bears eat all these toxin filled seals and are unable to reproduce, slowly killing all polar bears.

NJheadhunter71

Oh, boy! How did you find your way here? So you think that because you shoot birds that makes you better than anyone else on this site that hunts big game? Last time I checked they are animals too that are in the circle. I do hope you know whatI mean by "the circle". Just because an animal is big, hence the word big game it shouldn't be hunted for food or clothing? You people crack me up! YES YOU PEOPLE. You are the same one's who think it is okay for aboriginal peoples to hunt for food but not a white man. Your the type that is on the fence about hunting in general and I dislike your type more than the other. Oh yeah, I get my rocks off big time huntingpolar bear with a 22/250 or a 30/06 and my super high power Bushnell scope LOL. You are definitly not a hunter of any sorts. I hunt for food90% of the time. I amenjoying nature when I'm out there just like you doaccept sometimesI have a bow, rifle, shotgun or my muzzle loader. I also spend just as much time outdoors not hunting!Here isthe onlygood point you brought up
Quote: When we are stripped of the tools and machines of modern day with which we have become dependent we are nothing more than fragile creatures like all animals.
In that sentence you admitted we are just like the bear, the wolf or the deer. So why can't I assert my God given hunting skillsjust like the other animals? Do you see anything wrong when a lion eats animpala? Did he assert his authority in such an appalling way? Would it make a difference ifI cut myself off from civilization, lived in thebush and lived in a house made of logs?I can't believeI wasted the time to even write this having todefendother hunters as well as myself.
Man your a hypocrite just like the rest of them! NOW BE GONE

NJheadhunter71

Like HUNTINGLIFE said, everybody needs to stop using the animals as the poster childrenfor the real problem. Pollution, global warming ect ect ect is the real cause. Its getting so bad that even the fish insome of the riversnear my house can't reproduce because of the high levels of birth control meds showing up in the sewer plants that aren't set up to filter that stuff out! Or Fish and game book every year for the past several years states that you shouldn't eat fish from my area's water ways!

Pioneer2

Wonder who they blamed for Global Warming when the Wooly rhinos and Mamoths died off due to climate change.Species have come and gone since the beginning of time.The present arctic used to be jungle etc.......There is no polar bear shortage.The Inuit are alotted so many tags to do with as they see fit,so they charge $20G or so per hunt to help fund their issolated communities.Don't forget northern Russia and greenland also has polar bears.This is nothing more than political knee jerking using the polar bear as a pawn.Kinda like the baby seal crap.Clearcut logging has removed natures filter for cleaning the environment and as usual money sadly is more important .It always amazed me when US residents could legally head north and shoot a polarbear but then could not bring the hide home.I thought CITIES had dropped this a while back?Anyone know more about this..........Harold [see www.polarbearhunting.net ]in Canada's NWT

Californiadoctor

I do not believe that Alaskan Inuit can sell their polar bear tags to non-Inuits. Polar bears are strictly protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA)of 1972. For the puroposes of this law polar bears are considered marine mammals just like whales, dolphins and seals and may not be killed anywhere under U.S. jurisdiction. Even if Alaska wasabsolutely over-run with polar bears they could not be hunted without a change in the MMPA. There was a provision in the law that allowed Native Alaskans (Inuit) to take a limited number of bowhead whales, polar bears, seals and walruses per year for subsistance and cultural reasons. Only Inuit are allowed to hunt and all the products of all animals taken must beconsumed within the Inuit community and not sold outside the Inuit community. If the Inuit were allowed to sell any of theseproducts outside the Inuit community, the U.S. Government would open itself to charges of hypocracy from Japan, Norway and Iceland. Our position is that our subsistance huntingby aboriginal peoples is fundamentally different from the type of whaling that Japan, Norway and Iceland engage in and therefore is not inconsistent with our opposition to whaling by those three countries.

Since I see no evidence that the U.S. is prepared to compromise on the MMPA, I do not see what the point would be of making poar bears a threatened or endangered species.

Caldoc

Pioneer2

I'm in Canada, andsome Innuit villages are alloted tags and act as guides for the hunters.If you like to go traditional they will take you in a dog sled . Forget the Gore-tex ,caribou skin is warmer and this is also available.Hunts were run through Cabelas once upon a time.........Polar bear liver is so toxic they won't even feed it to the dogs.Harold

huntinglife

There are currently 11 areas in Canada where you can hunt polar bear and still import your trophy into the United States. If this legislation passes you will still be allowed to go and hunt Polar Bear in those areas but you will no longer be able to import your pelt back into the United States! There is currently no place in the United States where you can hunt Polar Bear unless you are in the Inuit tribes in Alaska. Polar Bears are a part of their subsistence hunting rights and they use every part of the bear in their tribes.

The USF&WS has no control over foreign countries so Canada will still allow hunting because the numbers of Polar Bears is increasing in most areas. The polar bear is being used by the environmentalists to stop hunting, but also to regulate greenhouse gases across the entire United States.

The Center for Biological Diversity has voluntarily dismissed its original suit in federal district court due to the USF&WS completion of stage two of the listing process in late December as agreed. The Center has now filed a new suit. The new suit is under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the National Environmental Policy Act and is a harbinger of what is to come. It is directed at enjoining all oil drilling operations in Alaska that may impact polar bear and walrus in the entire Beaufort Sea.

This is an all out war and if the USF&WS allows this listing it will tie them up in paperwork and be the death of the agency!

I want something done by congress in a bi-partisan way to fix this issue as they are responsible for listening to all options and coming up with a national plan and legislation that is workable for our entire country. I do not believe allowing a small minority of radical environmentalists in San Francisco to set national policy and I do not want our hunting rights to have anything to do with that legislation!