In 1994, amendments to the
U.S. Marine
Mammal Protection Act allowed American sport-hunters to import trophies of polar
bears they had killed in Canada.
More than 900 import permits were issued between 1997
and 2008, when the
designation
of the polar
bear as "threatened" under the U.S.
Endangered
Species Act ended the program.
This map shows who applied for import permits and where their
trophies came from. It is based on information publicly available in
the U.S. Federal
Register.
Polars bears in the Southern Beaufort Sea, 2006.
Source: USFWS.
Click a marker (circle) to show application details.
Click an applicant
name to search official
Federal Register for matching records.
Click
a population outline to highlight, hide, or show all
markers for that population.
