Polar bears are a solitary animal hunting and living in the great white expanse of the Arctic, enduring winters where there is no sun and summers where the sun never sets. They constantly prowl the sea ice in search of their main food source, seals. We are lulled into believing the polar bear is immune to human pollution and the effects of global warming but these problems travel with the great white bears of the north wherever they go.

Polar bears are at the top of the food chain and as pollutants travel up the chain pollutants build and become more potent as they rise in the food chain until finally at the top of the chain the bears receive the full force of a polluted world.

Polar bears use the sea ice as a platform from which to hunt seals. When the Arctic ice melts early in the summer or arrives late in the fall they must delay hunting. This can cause the bears to go into the bone-chilling cold of an Arctic winter without adequate stores of fat to see them through the long, dark, cold months. The effect on females ability to breed and have cubs can be devastating.

Ian Stirling of the Canadian Wildlife Service who has been studying polar bears for more than 20 years is one of many scientists who are concerned. Disturbing changes in his data show that male polar bears are 80 to 100 kilograms lighter than in past years, while females can be 40 to 50 pounds lighter. He believes that the gradual rise in world temperature over the past 20 years has caused the sea ice to melt earlier in the summer therefore forcing the bears ashore for longer periods of time. This leads to a shorter hunting season for ringed seals.

It has been found that pollutant levels such as PCB, chlordane, DEE and dieldrin are extremely high in polar bears which can cause changes in immune and reproductive systems.

Pollution and global warming are the long term problems facing polar bears and will take time and dedication to solve. But there are also short term threats, the greatest of which is hunting.

The International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears and Their Habitat was signed by the 5 circumpolar nations. However some countries including the United States and Canada allow native hunting. An organization called "Polar Bears Alive" with a large international membership of citizens and scientists concerned with polar bear preservation, is working to protect the bears while at the same time recognizing the need for reasonable native hunting as part of a traditional culture. PBA says, "the whole question of native hunts should be carefully examined. While it is true that polar bear hunts are part of the traditional culture of the Far North, it is also true that the bears face so many other pressures --from pollution to climate change--that allowing the hunts to continue is a course fraught with danger."

Canadian laws allow native hunters to sell their right to kill a bear to non-natives such as American trophy hunters who pay as much as $20, 000 to shoot a bear. This practice has led to a burgeoning business among trophy hunters. As the flow of US dollars increases, Canada has loosened its regulations and raised its quota limits to allow more trophy hunts by high priced clients. PBA believes that the conservation of polar bears must be brought to the attention of an informed and caring public so that laws can be carefully examined and changed to protect the bears and satisfy traditional native hunting.