A report authored by employees of Humane Society International and the International Fund for Animal Welfare draws from my research (Canada Opposes U.S. Effort to Ban Polar Bear Trade - March 5). Their report makes an assertion, attributed to me, that Inuit objected to polar-bear sport-hunting because of the "disrespect trophy hunting shows to polar bears." The actual passage states that "This vying for clients [among local outfitters]... came to be seen ... as potentially offensive to polar bears."
The HSI-IFAW authors are correct that Inuit receive barely one-half of sport hunt fees, citing my figure of $1.5-million as this annual revenue, but then question the importance of sport hunt money to Inuit.
I derived the economic effect from the value of the traditional food produced for each sport-hunt dollar Inuit "invested" in hunting equipment. The result was a 5:1 return.
Polar bear sport-hunting, as an economic activity, took off in the aftermath of the collapse of the world sealskin market, an occurrence in which the International Fund for Animal Welfare played a primary role.
Department of Geography, McGill University