Polar bear extinction: has extinction tourism gone too far?

Polar bear extinction: has extinction tourism gone too far?

A security guard on a cruise ship recently shot and killed a polar bear. Did the bear get too close or the tourists?

I don't usually dig myself into holes I can't climb out of. I like strong arguments and clear answers - but there is only one answer here and unfortunately I don't like it.

Let me start at the beginning: On July 28, a cruise ship guard shot and killed a polar bear in Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago located between mainland Norway and the North Pole.

The guard and three colleagues, all armed, landed in Svalbard from the MS Bremen, operated by Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, to ensure the area was safe before letting tourists ashore. During the inspection, one of the guards was attacked by a polar bear. The man suffered non-life-threatening head injuries and is said to be in stable condition. The polar bear is dead.

old=““>Fair useAn Arctic polar bear was shot and killed by a cruise ship security guard

Svalbard, a place of dramatic glaciers, vast ice fields and raw, elemental beauty, is one of Europe's last great wildernesses - but climate change is advancing rapidly in the Arctic. Global sea ice was at its lowest level ever recorded last year. Polar bears hunt seals from sea ice, and shrinking sea levels have forced them to spend more time on land and hunt over greater distances.

Svalbard has accordingly become a honeypot for tourists seeking an extreme wildlife experience. A port map shows 18 cruise ships would dock in Svalbard's main settlement, Longyearbyen, this week. Seeing a polar bear in the wild has become a must for “extinction tourists,” those visiting people, places and wildlife that may soon disappear.

alt=“Shrinking sea ice is forcing polar bears to spend more time on land”>DreamtimeShrinking sea ice is forcing polar bears to spend more time on land

The news of the polar bear being killed made me angry and sad. People invaded the bear's territory purely for recreational purposes and then killed it for following its natural instincts. As TV personality Ricky Gervais put it, “Let’s get too close to a polar bear in its natural environment and then kill it when it gets too close.” The episode was absolutely tragic.

Another reason it was so jarring was that those tourists could have been Peter and me. In fact, the only reason we were in Tromso was because it was the wrong time of year to visit Svalbard. Seeing a polar bear in the wild is the stuff of dreams and documentaries. Every adventure traveler wants to see these magnificent creatures in their natural environment; to witness their grace and agility; being impressed by their size and strength; and of course, photographing them in the wild.

alt="Dying Tourism">DreamtimeSome tourists exert pressure for the perfect photo

Significantly, no old snapshot will do. It must be a cash injection, says John, a tour guide at the popular Churchill observation station in Canada: "Bears that have been foraging in piles of bones or rolling in the dirt have dirty, matted fur, but tourists don't. I don't want to photograph that," he tells me. "They want a mom and her cub, two cubs playing, or a bear looking straight into the lens. Some customers have asked us to get the bear to stand on two legs, and they're not always kidding."

Churchill sells itself as the "Polar Bear Capital of the World," but I'm told it's not a remote backcountry of striking beauty, but a place where huge Humvees trucks hold 50 passengers at a time, helicopters buzz overhead on sightseeing tours, and a mobile lodge parks on the bears' lawn, luring them with smells of food wafting from the windows. If left unchecked, Svalbard could head in the same direction.

Extinction tourism: Where to draw the line

Where do we draw the line when it comes to endangered travel destinations? This question has concerned us in the past, particularly in connection with Everest, which Peter would like to climb one day, the Galapagos Islands, which we have visited, and most recently the Great Barrier Reef. We examined landscapes affected by climate change, highlighted the costs of human activity and argued for tourism caps.

Through all of this, we have maintained that you should be able to visit vulnerable places as long as you do so in a sustainable way – but there must be a line. It is true that the vast majority of tourists who observe polar bears do so without incident, but the incidents that do occur are a function of those that do not. All visitors feed into the culture of extinction tourism and increase the likelihood of an accident or incident.

alt="All tourists feed into the culture of extinction tourism">DreamtimeAll tourists feed into the culture of extinction tourism

Therefore, it is extremely important that ethical guidelines are strictly adhered to, but this is not always the case, says John: “You can choose an ethical operator, but there will always be one that breaks the rules,” he says. “Tourists will then choose them because their TripAdvisor [reviewers] say they have seen bears up close, while others say they have not.”

Regulations, fines and the confiscation of licenses and equipment are not enough of a deterrent, says John: "Some operators feed bears from the back of the boat. Some get closer than the minimum distance, which stresses the bears and puts tourists in danger."

And so we come to the hole I've dug myself into because I can't see a way out. I want to see Canada and more of Norway. I want to sail through the Arctic and I want to see polar bears in the wild. But given this, how can I justify a trip?

My best answer is that I vow not to take a trip like this unless I can be sure the operator is ethical. This means I have to check company data to make sure there is no greenwashing, scour reviews for rule violations, and pay extra if necessary. It's an imperfect answer, but given my dilemma, it's the only one I can give.

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The Sixth Extinction is probably humanity's most enduring legacy. Elizabeth Kolbert's powerful, humbling, and deeply necessary book forces us to reconsider the fundamental question of what it means to be human.

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