Polar Bear and Pacific Walrus Conservation in a Changing World

Rapid seasonal changes in sea ice directly affect distribution and local abundance of marine mammals, notably polar bears and pacific walrus. As the sea ice retreats in the late summer and fall, animals spend time along the coast with the result of greatly increased interactions with people. Such changes necessitated development of new conservation and management strategies to minimize additional effects to the animals as well as address safety concerns specifically with polar bears. Some management strategies are simply an enhancement of existing programs, such as polar bear patrols in both the US and in Russia. In contrast, changes in walrus distribution and habitat use required development of new approaches; for example, compilation potential sources of disturbance to newly developing walrus haulouts with associated strategies to minimize these types of disturbance events. Notably, effective strategies involve local peoples and have the flexibility to adapt as environmental variation remains high. In most cases, existing resource management statutes provide sufficient authorities to develop these types of new management strategies that address the immediate responses to environmental changes but do not address the root cause of the change. As such, these approaches are intended to address immediate threats and minimize, where possible, additional impacts that may occur as species respond to climate change.