Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
response to this article, Ian Stirling (an
expert on polar bears) and others rejected
this argument and stressed that long-term
trends in the population of polar bears in
western Hudson Bay were consistent with
the thesis that climate warming in west-
ern Hudson Bay was “the major factor”
causing the sea ice to break up at progres-
sively earlier dates each year. This shift
has prompted polar bears to come ashore
too fast, subjecting them to progressively
poorer conditions for several months each
year, impairing reproduction and the sur-
vival of young, sub-adult, and older (but
not prime) adults. Stirling and associates
noted that when the population declined
the hunting quota for Inuit was no longer
sustainable and that overharvesting likely
accelerated the population drop.
