Watching Polar Bears in the Arctic

I have a real problem with polar bear watching and ecotourism. There is a lot of evidence that watching polar bears in the arctic is disturbing and causing stress to the already endangered polar bear. It's not very easy for a polar bear to hide from a helicopter or a high speed ice truck full of pleasure seeking tourists. If the only incentive of these holiday packages is to ship in hordes of people into an alien environment with all the accompanying noise and pollution, then I am against it. So far, I am unconvinced that Polar Bear watching fits in with the aims and objectives of true ecotourism. In these circumstances, I would urge you to fully research your potential polar bear watching holiday package and be a responsible ecotourist should you eventually decide to go. Thank you.

By doing a basic search through your favourite search engine, you will find several Polar Bear watching packages - a few examples are :

Arctic Experience and ecotourism Nature Trek and the responsible ecotourist

Polar Bears - endangered species

The Polar Bear is native to the Arctic only and is under threat of extinction due to global warming. As the ice melts, it receeds, leaving the polar bears stranded on ice floes. They are unable to ambush the seals and will die of starvation or drowning. The current estimate of Polar Bears is 25,000 with indications that Polar Bears will disappear completely from Alaska but will continue to exist in the Arctic archipelago of Canada and areas off the northern Greenland coast.

Some countries - notably Russia and Denmark - still allow hunting by the indigenous population !!!!!!!

For technical sub divisions of Polar Bears, please refer to Wikipedia