02/17/2026
It’s r@c!st to be against polar bear hunting! Native Inuit communities play a formal, structural role in polar bear conservation through co-management systems that help determine harvest levels, tag allocations, and how those quotas are distributed among communities. This isn’t reckless exploitation, it’s regulated wildlife management shaped by local knowledge, lived experience, and modern science working together. Bears are taken for food, for safety, for hides, for cultural continuity, and within limits designed to keep populations sustainable. That’s science backed conservation. Which makes it fair to ask, why are distant political institutions given more authority over polar bears than the people who actually live with them?
When the ESA blocks legally harvested, fully utilized polar bears from being imported into the United States, it doesn’t “save” a single bear. It simply strands valuable hides and undermines the very communities that helped build the management framework. Hunters who followed the rules. Inuit who allocated the tags. Resources that were ethically taken and meant to be used. The result? Hides sitting in storage instead of being appreciated and preserved. That’s not protection, that’s waste created by policy. If polar bears are being actively managed, if regulated harvest is part of conservation, and if Indigenous stakeholders are central to those decisions, then continuing to treat the species as untouchable under U.S. law isn’t just outdated, its r@c!st towards Indigenous cultures.
Stephen Ziegler — Outdoor writer
SCI show in Nashville | Feb 19-21, 2026
