The Polar Bear Alway Loses
Svalbard, Norway: a French woman is attacked; a bear gets shot,
August 8th was my birthday. I happened to be on Svalbard, an island in Norway’s high Arctic, so I celebrated with a sea-to-summit hike across the Arctic tundra. My guide carried a rifle, because you can’t leave town without a gun, in case of polar bears. From a barren ridgetop we watched a helicopter fly over the water along the far side of the Isfjord. Our guide looked concerned.
“They normally don’t fly so low,” he said. “Maybe there’s been an attack, and they are looking for the bear.”
He was right, when I got back to my hotel, I learned that a polar bear had injured a woman on a camping excursion that morning. It made global headlines. The Guardian covered it like this:
Polar bear killed after injuring woman at Svalbard campsite
Aug 8, 2022. A polar bear has been killed after it attacked a campsite in Norway’s remote Arctic Svalbard Islands on Monday, injuring a French tourist. The woman, who was not identified, was part of a tour group of 25 people who were camping at Sveasletta, in the central part of the Svalbard archipelago, more than 800km (500 miles) north of the Norwegian mainland. The campsite was located across a fjord from Longyearbyen, the main settlement in the Arctic Svalbard archipelago…The French woman suffered injuries to an arm. Shots were fired at the polar bear, which was scared away from the area… >>
The woman was flown to the hospital. She will recover. The badly-wounded bear was tracked down by helicopter and killed.
When there’s a polar bear- human altercation in Svalbard, the bear always loses. There are protocols in place, of course. The polar bear is protected in Norway. It’s illegal to kill one, except to save a human life. Guides are trained to scare a bear using flare guns, and only to shoot as a last resort.
“But, when a bear is really hungry, it won’t scare,” as my guide explained that fateful morning. “Even if you shoot him, he keeps coming. Because the hunger is stronger than the fear.”
I did a search for Svalbard bear attacks online. The story always ends the same way for the bear:
Polar Bear Killed In Svalbard Attack
March 4, 2021 One person was injured in a polar bear attack in a remote part of the Svalbard archipelago. The bear was shot and killed.Two employees of Svalbard company PolarX were measuring ice in a remote part of Svalbard when a polar bear attacked them from behind on Tuesday.
Panic reaction, says critic after polar bear was shot dead by police in Longyearbyen
January 01, 2020…The bear was killed on New Year’s night after multiple visits over the last few days in the settlement of Longyearbyen on Svalbard.
Man Killed by Polar Bear on Svalbard
August 28, 2020.. A Dutch national has died after he was attacked by a polar bear at a campsite by Longyearbyen Airport in Svalbard. The polar bear was shot during the attack and later found dead.
Charges Dropped Against Crew Who Shot Polar Bear And Sparked A Furore
11 SEP 2020. The Norwegian Government has dropped all charges against two crew members of Hapag-Lloyd Cruises for shooting and killing a polar bear while on an excursion on the island of Phippsoya in Svalbard in 2018…. The area appeared clear but a polar bear was present and hidden from the boat. The bear then attacked one guard who sustained head injuries. The other guards made an attempt to scare the bear off but it did not stop the attack. The two guards then fired three shots, killing the bear according to a report in The Maritime Executive.
German man attacked by polar bear on Norwegian island
28.07.2018 The man was leading a group of tourists on a remote Arctic archipelago when the attack occurred. The man is in stable condition, but the bear was shot dead and local police have launched an investigation….
Skiers shot polar bear on Svalbard
April 18, 2016. Four tourists from Finland who were out skiing on Svalbard over the weekend felt forced to shoot one of the archipelago’s protected polar bears, when they feared it was about to attack. They only wounded the bear, though, and it later had to be put to death by local authorities.
Norway: Polar bear attacks tourist in Svalbard
March 19, 2015 (CNN)A polar bear attacked a man camping in Norway’s Arctic Svalbard region Thursday, authorities said, injuring his face and arm. The man was one of six people who were on a combined ski and snowmobile trip in the Svalbard archipelago, the local governor’s office said on its website. The other people in the group shot the polar bear dead and the injured man was flown by helicopter to Longyearbyen hospital, the governor’s office said.
Polar bear kills one on Svalbard
August 5, 2011: A polar bear has killed a 17-year-old British tourist and moderately or seriously injured four others who were part of a British school trip at the Von Postbreen glacier on the remote island of Spitsbergen, the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago. The bear attacked the youths, estimated to be aged between 16 at 20, in their camp, and was shortly after shot by those other members of the 13-member travelling group.
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Why are the bears so hungry? Seals are the bears’ main food, which they hunt on sea ice. They sit next to a hole in the ice waiting for a seal to surface and take a breath. Then, wham, dinner. Due to rapid climate change, there is less and less sea ice in western Svalbard. So the bears are getting hungry more often.
There’s valid concern that as ecotourism expands on the island, there will be more encounters, attacks and shootings. Government grants are supporting the tourism industry’s ‘Destination Svalbaard 2025" masterplan to double the number of full-time tourism jobs in Longyearbyen by 2025. Their aim is expand the quantity, range, offerings and seasonal activities available for visitors.
For the people of Svalbard, it’s a paradox. Ecotourism thrives on the island in good part because of the mystique of the great white bear. Here’s the island’s tourism website, and my photo of the tourist information office in Longyearbyen:
Indeed, 7 of the 9 polar bear shootings since 2011 were the result of tourist activities. However, it is important to put these numbers in perspective. In a 2018 article about polar bear killings published in High North News, Frigg Jørgensen, executive director of AECO (Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators) wrote:
It is important to keep in mind that Norway has signed the Polar Bear Agreement and, unlike some other Arctic countries, have banned polar bear hunting in Svalbard. According to numbers compiled by Ole J. Liodden in WildPhoto, 7500 polar bears have been killed in Canada, Alaska and Greenland in the ten-year period between 2007 and 2016. In the 45 years that have passed since the polar bear became protected in 1973, 131 polar bears have been killed in Svalbard, almost all of them in self-defense. Out of the 131 shootings, 50 bears, or almost 40%, were killed by scientists or field stations residents. Since in 1973, 15 polar bears have been killed in incidents connected with tourism….
I’ve not been able to independently verify these numbers (and my count is 7 bears killed due to tourism alone since 2011) but the general point is well taken: There are an estimated 22,000–31,000 polar bears alive today, according to the IUCN. Compared to the horrific numbers in North America, killing an average of (131 bears/45 years=) 3 bears/year on Svalbard seems relatively small. However, only about 300 bears live on Svalbard, so it’s an annual loss of 1% of an isolated population.When a population gets below a certain point, genetic diversity lowers, inbreeding sets in, and a species perishes.
According to a 2021 ABC news report: “Polar bear populations studied in Svalbard…were found to have up to a 10% loss in genetic diversity over a 20-year period, which correlated with a “rapid disappearance of Arctic sea ice,” according to a study published Wednesday in the Royal Society Journals. As the ice melted, the polar bears’ habitat became fragmented, resulting in a rapid increase in genetic isolation and inbreeding among regions due to reduced contact with polar bears from the outside, scientists said.”
Partly in response to human-bear altercations, the Norwegian government planned to tighten ecotourism regulations on Svalbard. But local tour operators have objected to the perceived heavy-handedness of some proposals (A hearing on Feb 1, 2022 has been postponed to allow for more input from tour operators). The proposed new measures include:
- Regulating where tourists can be put ashore on the islands
- Strengthening the prohibition against seeking out polar bears
- Prohibiting motor traffic on sea ice after 1st of March on selected fjords out of consideration of ringed seal and polar bears
- Creating a new rule that polar bear guards at excursion campsites have to remain awake.
Bottom line: more regulations could produce fewer shootings, but will definitely increase costs and reduce polar bear sightings.
As one of my tour guides mused, “For 350 years, humans came to Svalbard in order to slaughter whales, walrus, fox, and polar bear.” Today’s economy depends on the surviving remnants to draw the tourists to the islands. As people expand further into the bear’s wild domain because we love them and want to see them, shouldn’t we be trying very, very hard not to kill them?
It’s an inflection point for Svalbard. I hope the governor’s office feels the pressure. Can tour operators change their priorities so that bear protection comes first? Also, should Arctic researchers get a free pass? Can’t they do more to reduce the chances of attracting a hungry bear to their bases? Can local residents find better ways of keeping bears clear of settlements, and settlers clear of bears? I hope so.
In the bigger picture, what are the prospects for polar bears’ survival as the Arctic melts? It depends on us. First, we can slow the pace by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, especially methane, which is both more potent than CO2, it is also much shorter lived. Second, we can create an off-limits-for-development Actic refuge for polar bears and other Arctic species in the regions where sea ice is likely to last the longest. WWF calls this The Last Ice Area. From their website:
The latest scientific projections agree that summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean will be largely gone within a generation. This will undercut a whole ecosystem dependent on sea ice. The exception is a region in the high Arctic of Canada and Greenland projected to be the last stronghold of summer sea ice as the Earth continues to warm due to climate change. In the coming years, it will be essential as an enduring home for ice-dependent life.
If you feel inspired to get involved — if you read “It depends on us” as “it depends on me” — here’s a few things you can do:
Contact the Slvabard Governor’s Office via this email: firmapost@sysselmesteren.no. In the subject box, write: Polar Bears, so that it can be directed to the right person.
Contact the Norewegian Environment Agency:
Learn more, contribute, or volunteer with these organizations:
