50 YEARS OF PATROLLING FOR POLAR BEAR POLAR BEARS IN MAGAINE RESEARCH CANADA'S ARCTIC 24 26 No. 1 THE 2021 CIRCLE PUBLISHED BY THE WWF ARCTIC POLAR BEARS: PROGRAMME FACING A CHANGING ARCTIC POLAR BEARS: FACING A CHANGING ARCTIC The Circle 1.2021 • EDITORIAL: MELANIE LANCASTER The Arctic is changing. Can polar bears change with it? 3 • IN BRIEF 4 • NUIANA HARDENBERG and ILUUNA SØRENSEN Our changing relationship with polar bears 6 • JON AARS Svalbard polar bears have proven themselves resourceful, but there are limits 8 • ERIC REGEHR America and Russia work together during challenging times 10 • VARVARA SEMENOVA Growing conflict between people and polar bears 12 • INFOGRAPHIC: Regional polar bear responses to Arctic sea-ice changes 14 • INTERVIEW: CAROLINE LADANOWSKI A circumpolar plan to manage polar bears 16 • MICHAEL CRISPINO Polar bears have a “refuge” in the US Arctic—for now 18 • ANDREW DEROCHER Playing the long game 20 • IAN STIRLING Combining scientific and Indigenous knowledge to conserve polar bears 24 • INTERVIEW: JAMES ENUAPIK Patrolling for polar bears in Whale Cove, Nunavut 26 • THE PICTURE 28 The Circle is published Publisher: Editor-in-chief: COVER: A two-year-old polar quarterly by the WWF WWF Arctic Programme Leanne Clare, [email protected] bear on the shore of Hudson Arctic Programme. 8th floor, 275 Slater St., Ottawa, Reproduction and quotation ON, Canada K1P 5H9 Managing editors: Bay. Photo: Andrew Derocher with appropriate credit are Sarah MacFadyen, [email protected] encouraged. Articles by Internet: www.panda.org/arctic Patti Ryan, [email protected] non-affiliated sources do ABOVE: Polar bear footprints. not necessarily reflect the ISSN 2073-980X = The Circle Web and social media: Photo: Andrew Derocher views or policies of WWF. Fanni Barocsi, [email protected] Send email address changes Date of publication: and subscription inquiries April 2021 Design and production: to [email protected]. Film & Form/Ketill Berger, [email protected] We reserve the right to edit letters for publication, and assume no responsibility for unsolicited material. 2 The Circle 1.2021 EDITORIAL The Arctic is changing. Can polar bears change with it? THE FIRST TIME I saw a polar bear, I was doing field work suggests they are either eating fewer seals or expending in the Canadian Arctic. In fact, we were visited by six more energy to live. bears within 24 hours as the summer sea ice broke up So on the whole, are polar bears adapting to the loss and bears began moving to land. I felt fortunate that of sea ice? It appears they are trying. How successful three Inuit researchers were in the camp with us. They their efforts will be in the long term remains to be seen. were completely confident in their understanding of the Meanwhile, some of their coping mechanisms are creat- bears’ behaviour and their ability to deter them safely. ing new challenges and exacerbating existing pressures. Thanks to their expertise, I watched these Arctic animals Spending more time on coastlines and in their natural habitat respectfully and without fear. islands among walrus haul-outs and bird As the climate crisis accelerates, I often wonder how colonies is bringing the bears into closer much my experience with polar bears in their element contact with communities, making it hard will become just a fond memory. The for people and bears to climate crisis makes it increasingly co-exist without dan- difficult to predict how these bears will The disappearance of polar gerous consequences. fare as their habitat shrinks. That said, In their search for new there is broad agreement that the loss bears—even if from only prey, polar bears are of habitat will have a negative impact certain parts of the Arctic— decimating some sea- MELANIE LANCASTER on polar bear populations across the bird breeding colonies, is a conservation biolo- Arctic. Indeed, in some subpopulations, would be a blow for the with as-yet unknown gist and senior special- ist in Arctic species with impacts have already been evident for ecological outcomes. As global south, but a concrete WWF. more than a decade. The accepted esti- the appetite for indus- mate is that under the current global and immeasurable loss for trial development of the climate trajectory, one third of polar Arctic Indigenous Peoples. Arctic increases, so too will the overlap bears will be lost in the next 30 years. between mineral deposits and denning But what will the pathway to that point habitats, with polar bears shifting from look like for polar bears, and what new challenges can we unstable sea ice onto land to give birth. expect and prepare for? September’s sea-ice minimum was the second lowest in To explore that question, this issue of The Circle high- recorded history. Glaciers continue to recede at a record lights some of the situations unfolding across the Arctic pace and temperatures in the Arctic continue to soar. as polar bears experience the effects of climate change. Clearly, there are legitimate reasons to be concerned In two Eastern Canadian subpopulations, as annual sea about the long-term persistence of polar bears. We must ice replaces multi-year ice, polar bears are in better shape move beyond concern and take global actions to reduce than they were two decades ago, partly due to the greater greenhouse gas emissions. The disappearance of polar abundance of prey. Around Svalbard—despite the loss bears—even if from only certain parts of the Arctic— of sea ice and the resulting disconnection of summer would be a blow for the global south, but a concrete and habitats from traditional maternal denning sites—cub immeasurable loss for Arctic Indigenous Peoples. We production and population sizes are stable. In contrast, must all work together so polar bears can maintain their the general condition of western Hudson Bay polar bears place in the Arctic ecosystem. l The Circle 1.2021 3 IN BRIEF A pod of narwhals. THE ARCTIC FOOD CHAIN Human medications detected in Spitsbergen crustaceans RESEARCHERS WITH the antibiotics and an anti- Little is currently known Norwegian Polar Institute depressant. about the concentrations and and University Centre in Crustaceans occupy levels of exposure of Arctic Svalbard have discovered the lowest levels of the wildlife to pharmaceutical evidence of a variety of drugs food chain, so any drug drugs or how big a problem in Arctic crustaceans near compounds they absorb it may be. The project’s find- the settlement of Ny-Ålesund are passed along to larger ings may be used to influence on the west coast of Spits- animals. Copepods (small the future management of bergen. Comparatively few aquatic crustaceans), in par- the Arctic regions and inform people live in the area, so the ticular, are rich in fats and national and international team was surprised to find are an essential food source regulatory governance on traces of anti-inflammatories, for Arctic fish and seabirds. land and at sea. NARWHAL SCIENCE Studying tusks to understand Arctic sea-ice changes ACCORDING TO A STUDY published in Current Biol- ogy , researchers have found that narwhals’ tusks hold vital clues about their food intake—and also shed light on The oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989, the state of their environment spilling nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil. over the past half century, Photo: Office of Response and Restoration,CC, Flickr.com including how quickly Arctic INNOVATION sea ice is melting. Could a nano-engineered sponge soak up Arctic oil spills? The narwhal’s distinctive A WARMER ARCTIC will At low temperatures, crude pre-heating. The team engi- increase the risk of oil spills oil’s heavier compounds neered it with a paraffin-like CHANGING RIVERS as tankers find it easier to begin to crystallize, creating nano-coating designed navigate increasingly ice- large, sticky masses that to bind to any sticky oil it Heavier rains alter High Arctic landscapes free waters. But a British other technologies have encounters. In tests, the research team has come up struggled to pick up. sponge absorbed up to 99 CANADIAN RESEARCHERS with a possible solution to Developed by scientists per cent of Texas raw crude have found that increased oil spills in polar areas. at Imperial College London, oil in 100 millilitres of water rainfall in the Canadian High The technology is essen- the sponge seems able within 3 hours at tempera- Arctic is altering river hydrol- tially a sponge that can to tackle a spill directly, tures as low as 5°C. ogy and water quality, a find- absorb oil from cold water. capturing the oil with no ing that has implications for northern communities. 4 The Circle 1.2021 NARWHAL SCIENCE Studying tusks to understand Arctic sea-ice changes Photo: Dr. Kristin Laidre/NOAA/OAR/OER Photo: Dr. tusk is actually a canine tooth tusks from 10 narwhals in around 1990 indicated that The amount of mercury in that projects from the left side northwest Greenland to the narwhals’ diet had begun the narwhals’ tusks after 2000 of the upper jaws of males, deduce what the whales had to shift from prey linked to sea continued to increase signifi- and is thought to help them eaten throughout their lives ice—like halibut and Arctic cantly without a correspond- obtain food. Narwhals have and understand how the ice cod—to include open-ocean ing shift in diet. Researchers a lifespan of more than 50 cover and impact of toxic prey that are lower in the hypothesized that this could years, and much like the rings compounds had changed over food chain, such as capelin be due to coal mining com- of tree trunks, their spiralled time.