Good morning. Today’s hearing will discuss the need to establish a regulatory framework in both Russia and Alaska for the shared polar bear population. In order to establish this regulatory course of action we need to pass legislation that will implement the agreement between the United States and Russia on the conservation and management of polar bears.

The United States and Russia signed a bilateral polar bear conservation agreement, also known as the “Polar Bear Treaty”, for the shared polar bear population in October of 2000. The purpose of the Polar Bear Treaty is to assure long-term, science-based conservation of the polar bear population and includes binding harvest limits.

Currently illegal harvest of polar bears in Russia is significant and at levels that in the past caused population depletion. In Alaska, subsistence hunting by Natives is unrestricted provided the population is not depleted. However, without implementing legislation to enforce agreements on the conservation and management of the polar bear population, depletion could result.

Today’s hearing will have two witnesses. Mr. Marshall Jones, Deputy Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, at the Department of the Interior. and Mr. Charlie Johnson. Charlie is Executive Director of the Alaska Nanuuq Commission.

On short notice Charlie was kind enough to fly hear from Nome, Alaska. For those of you that don’t know how far away Nome is from Washington DC. The distance is about as far as it is from here to Paris, France.

Charlie, I really appreciate you coming so far on short notice.