A polar bear that swam more than 200 miles in near-freezing waters to reach Iceland was shot on arrival in case it posed a threat to humans.
The bear, thought to be the first to reach the country in at least 15 years, was killed after local police claimed it was a danger to humans, triggering an outcry from animal lovers. Police claimed it was not possible to sedate the bear.
The operation to kill the animal was captured on film.
The adult male, weighing 250kg, was presumed to have swum some 200 miles from Greenland, or from a distant chunk of Arctic ice, to Skagafjordur in northern Iceland.
"There was fog up in the hills and we took the decision to kill the bear before it could disappear into the fog," said the police spokesman Petur Bjornsson.
Iceland's environment minister, Thorunn Sveinbjarnardottir, gave the green light for police to shoot the bear because the correct tranquiliser would have taken 24 hours to be flown in, the Icelandic news channel Visir.is reported.
Sveinbjarnardottir's account was disputed by the chief vet in the town of Blönduó, Egill Steingrímsson, who said he had the drugs necessary to immobilise the bear in the boot of his car. "If the narcotics gun would have been sent by plane, it would have arrived within an hour," he said. "They could keep tabs on the bear for that long."
Steingrímsson also criticised police for not closing a mountain road where people congregated after hearing news of the bear. "There were around 50 to 60 people there watching. The police did not have many options when the bear ran down the hill, approaching the crowd," Steingrimsson said. "I'm very unsatisfied that the police did not try to catch it alive and did not close the road."
The oldest record of polar bears being sighted in Iceland is from 890, 16 years after the first settlers arrived. The last visit was in 1993, when sailors saw a bear swimming off the coast of Strandir. It was also killed.
Polar bears were frequently tamed during the middle ages, but since then no bear has been captured alive in Iceland. Receding North Pole ice is diminishing their hunting and mating grounds and jeopardising their survival.
A spokesman for PolarWorld, a German group dedicated to the preservation of the polar regions and the creatures which inhabit it, called the bear's death "an avoidable tragedy ... another great day for mankind".
http://website.lineone.net/~polar.publishing/curseofthedriftice.htm
http://website.lineone.net/~polar.publishing/curseofthedriftice.htm
Curse of the Drift Ice
by Thor Edward Jakobsson, translated by Keneva Kunz
Dr Thor Jakobsson is the head of the Sea Ice Research Unit of the Icelandic Meteorological Office and a member of the Expert Team on Sea Ice at the World Meteorological Organisation. His article looks at the chief characteristics of sea ice in Icelandic waters and its impact on the country and its people. Translated by Keneva Kunz.
The habitat of the polar bear extends across the polar ice. The animal ranges widely, travelling great distances across the frozen ocean surface. It catches fish and seals by diving skilfully off the edge of the ice in pursuit of its prey. It can also swim great distances, across long stretches of open water or from one ice flow to another. A polar bear has no easy life, but it is a hardy animal, which can withstand all sorts of trials.
Viewing a polar bear in its natural environment is an engaging experience. The author was once aboard an icebreaker in midwinter, located in Baffin Bay between Greenland and Canada. Endless, gleaming white stretches of ice surrounded us on all sides. We were stuck fast, aboard Canada's largest icebreaker, so thick and solidly frozen was the ice.
One day we saw a grey spot on the horizon to the south, which appeared to be moving. Through binoculars we could see that it was a polar bear travelling across the ice in the direction of the vessel. As it approached we could see two cubs trotting along beside their mother. The she-bear forged ahead and passed the icebreaker at what she must have considered a reasonable distance. The cubs were curious and sniffed in the direction of the icebreaker. But their mother had no time for foolishness and the little family gradually disappeared from our sight on its journey north across the expanse of ice.
Icelandic annals contain fairly frequent reports of polar bears which had been transported to Iceland by polar ice. As might be expected, they were more frequent visitors in past centuries when the ice was more extensive. All the same, they were a rare enough sight to cause a flurry of excitement when word spread of a polar bear in the vicinity. People closed themselves securely in their dwellings while the most daring men joined up to take on the uninvited guest.
There are stories, for example, of the shooting of a polar bear in 1792 in the West Fjords and another in North Iceland. In 1802 two bears came ashore in the Strandir district of the West Fjords. After spending several days visiting fish-storage shacks, one of the bears was killed. Nothing more was heard of the other. In 1874, a number of polar bears came to Iceland; three were killed in the Hornstrandir region of the West Fjords while three came ashore in Mjóifjörður in the East Fjords. Bears have not been known in Iceland since the year 1988, although in 1993 fishermen noticed a polar bear swimming several miles offshore.
In recent years polar bears have been a rarity, since the polar ice has been much less extensive, as was mentioned. Polar bears also decreased in number due to human impact, but since they have become protected their numbers have grown once more. Some scientists are concerned that the shrinking polar ice cap resulting from the Greenhouse Effect will make it more difficult for the polar bear to survive.
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