U.S. bans import of polar bear trophies: official

Americans are no longer allowed to bring home polar bear hides as hunting trophies, a top U.S. official says — in a change that deals a severe blow to an industry worth more than $3 million a year to Canada's North.

The decision stemmed from the U.S. government's decision to list polar bears as a threatened species under its Endangered Species Act. That decision, announced Wednesday, means all U.S. federal agencies now have to ensure nothing they do jeopardizes the bears' survival or the sea ice on which the bears live.

Lyle Laverty, the U.S. assistant secretary of the interior, told CBC News on Thursday that the bears' new status as a threatened species means it is now considered a "depleted" species under the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, which regulates what marine animals can be harvested and imported into the country.

"[Under] the Marine Mammal Protection Act, once a species is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, it does then bring it down to the category of being 'depleted,'" Laverty said.

"So it would prohibit the importation of trophy products into the United States … immediately."

However, Laverty said the ban is currently being challenged in court by American hunters who want to bring back their polar bear trophies.

Polar bear sport hunts are a major source of income for many Inuit communities in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

So far in 2008, hunters have paid as much as $40,000 for the opportunity to hunt a polar bear in remote northern communities.