Description

U.S. Management and Harvest Report Summary

Speakers: Dan Bjornlie, Polar Bear Program Lead, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Maija Lukin, Executive Director, Alaska Nannut Co-Management Council

The U.S. management and harvest presentation summarizes recent management, monitoring, subsistence harvest, and co-management activities for the U.S. polar bear subpopulations of the Chukchi and Southern Beaufort Seas. This presentation briefly presents an update on the status of polar bears in the U.S., as well as high profile management topics, which include completion of Stock Assessment Reports for both subpopulations of polar bears in the U.S. and the 2025 signing of a formal co-management agreement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Alaska Nannut Co-Management Council (ANCC), the Service’s Alaska Native co-management partner. We will also discuss the recent history and future of co-management efforts with ANCC. In addition, we will provide an update on U.S. polar bear subsistence harvest.