Marine Mammal Protection Act

The Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed by congress in 1972. Its purpose is to prevent the harassment, injuring, or killing of marine mammals. In 1973, when the polar bear populations were devastated from sport hunting, the countries with polar bear populations signed the International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears. Canada, US, Soviet Union (Russia), Denmark (On behalf of Greenland) all agreed to develop a conservation program, as well as provisions for habitat conservation and substinence hunting.

In October 2000, the Russian Federation and the US negotiated a bilateral agreement on the conservation and management of the Alaska-Chikotka polar bear population. The purpose was to establish a joint management, mostly to curb the poaching in Russia. This bilateral agreement provided greater protections for countries with shared polar bear populations.

The US-Russia Bilateral Agreement on Polar Bear Conservation:

-includes provisions for setting hunt quotas. Quotas are not required under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the only restriction on subsistence hunts is that they must not be "wasteful";

-prohibits the hunting of denning bears, females with cubs, and cubs under one year of age;

-does not allow the use of aircraft, large motorized vehicles, snares or poison for hunting purposes;

-allows for greater research opportunities;

-restricts commercial uses of harvested polar bears to handicrafts by Native people; and

-created a Polar Bear Commission to consider scientific information on polar bears, set annual hunt quotas, and recommend conservation measures.

(source:HSI)

On June 6, 2006 the United States Senate unanimously approved the United States-Russia Polar Bear Conservation and Management Implementation Act (S.2013), which amends the Marine Mammal Protection Act to allow the implementation of the bilateral agreement. S.2013 specified that 2 US representatives, one from the federal government and the other from a native community, will be appointed to a polar bear commision. On July 17, 2006 the House of Representatives passed H.R.4075, which is similar to the Senate's S.2013.