Purpose: This bill would amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 to strengthen polar bear conservation efforts. The MMPA established a moratorium on the import of marine mammals and marine mammal products, including the import of all sport-hunted marine mammal trophies. However, in 1994, the MMPA was modified to allow the import of sport-hunted trophies from Canada. S. 1406 would delete that provision.
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Status: Referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Action: SUPPORT. Please contact your two U.S. Senators and urge them to support S. 1406. Tell your Senators that polar bears are in jeopardy and S. 1406 will reestablish basic protections to help ensure their survival.
Talking Points for your letter:
- Based on threats to polar bear populations, the U.S. Department of the Interior proposed in 2006 that polar bears be listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
- Polar bears have low reproductive rates, have long lives, and rely on high adult survival rates to maintain population numbers. Polar bear populations are under stress from climate change and habitat degradation.
- Polar bear hunting in the United States is prohibited except for small numbers of Alaskans who must do so for subsistence.
- The U.S. should not condone hunting them at the same time the Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed designating them as a threatened species. Trophy hunters shouldn’t be able to skirt the spirit of U.S. law by killing polar bears abroad and bringing their heads back across the border to America.
- S. 1406 would ensure that citizens of the U.S. do not contribute to polar bear mortalities in Canada by removing the exemption that allows permits to be issued to U.S. trophy hunters for the import of polar bear trophies from Canada.