Summary of polar bear population status per 2019

The present table has been developed during 2019, based on new criteria for status assessments. This status table will be updated whenever there are new information available that is considered credible and valid by the group, but not more frequent than once per year.

Explanations for sea ice metric method here.

Press the subpopulation hyperlink and more information will appear.

Downloads:

Status table criteria (pdf)
Status table 2019 (pdf )
Status report 2019 (pdf)

Subpopulation	Subpopulation size			Subpopulation trend		Sea ice metrics 1979-2018		Human-caused removals 2013/2014–2017/2018
	Estimate and uncertainity	Method and type of evidence	Year and citation	Long term (approx 3 generations)	Short term (approx 1 generation)	Change in date of spring ice retreat / fall ice advance (days per decade)	Change in summer sea ice area (percent change per decade)	5-year mean
	Estimate and uncertainity	Method and type of evidence	Year and citation	Long term (approx 3 generations)	Short term (approx 1 generation)		Change in summer sea ice area (percent change per decade)	Quota (bears per year)	Actual (% of total population)
Arctic Basin	Unknown			Data deficient	Data deficient	-9.8/14.3	-7.4	N/A
Baffin Bay	2826 2059-3593	Genetic C-R	2012-2013	Data deficient	Data deficient	-6.1/3.9	-18.9	137.8	135.8 (4.8%)
Barents Sea	2644 1899-3592	Distance sampling	2004	Data deficient	Likely stable (2004 to 2015)	-16.0/25.2	-19.6	N/A
Chukchi Sea	2937 1552-5944	Physical C-R with density extrapolation	2016	Data deficient	Likely stable (2008 to 2016)	-6.3/6.8	-25.9	58 (changed to 85 in July 2018)	15.4 (0.5%) in U.S. + approx. 32 (1.1%) in Russia
Davis Strait	2158 1833-2542	Physical C-R	2007	Data deficient	Likely stable (2007 to 2016)	-5.6/6.7	-19.2	QC + 75.8 (NU & GL)	84.4 (3.9%)
East Greenland	Unknown			Data deficient	Data deficient	-7.0/8.4	-7.9	64 (% of population unknown)	65
Foxe Basin	2585 2096-3189	Mark-recapture distance sampling	2009-10	Stable (1994 to 2010)	Stable (1994 to 2010)	-4.5/4.6	-14.1	QC + 117.2 (NU)	103.8 (4.0%)
Gulf of Boothia	1592 870-2314	Physical C-R	2000	Likely stable (2000 to 2017)	Likely stable (2000 to 2017)	-8.0/6.6	-13.6	72.4	61.8 (3.9%)
Kane Basin	357 221-493	Genetic C-R	2013-2014	Data deficient	Likely increased (1997 to 2014)	-6.9/4.6	-9.8	11.0	8.0 (2.2%)
Kara Sea	Unknown			Data deficient	Data deficient	-9.7/8.9	-22.7	N/A
Lancaster Sound	2541 1759-3323	Physical C-R	1995-1997	Data deficient	Data deficient	-5.6/3.8	-7.5	84.8	80.8 (3.2%)
Laptev Sea	Unknown			Data deficient	Data deficient	-6.7/7.2	-17.5	N/A
M'Clintock Channel	284 166-402	Physical C-R	2000	Very likely increased (2000 to 2016)	Very likely increased (2000 to 2016)	-4.2/4.7	-9.0	8,8	7.8 (2.7%)
Northern Beaufort Sea	980 825-1135	Physical C-R	2006	Likely decreased (2006 to 2018)	Likely decreased (2013 to 2018)	-7.2/2.6	-6.5	142.2 (SB+NB)	83 (SB+NB)
Norwegian Bay	203 115-291	Physical C-R	1997	Data deficient	Data deficient	-1.8/3.9	-1.7	4.0	2.0 (1.0%)
Southern Beaufort Sea	907 548-1270	Physical C-R	2010	Likely decreased (1998 to 2010)	Likely decreased (2001 to 2010)	-9.7/8.6	-25.3	134.4 (SB+NB)	62.4 (3.3%)
Southern Hudson Bay	780 590-1029	Mark-recapture distance sampling	2016	Very likely decreased (1986 to 2016)	Likely decreased (2012 to 2016)	-1.9/3.1	-8.5	51.6	36.4 (4.7%)
Viscount Melville Sound	161 93-229	Physical C-R	1992	Data deficient	Data deficient	-5.5/7.1	-5.4	7.0	3.6 (2.2%)
Western Hudson Bay	842 562-1121	Mark-recapture distance sampling	2016	Very likely decreased (1995 to 2016)	Likely decreased (2011 to 2016)	-5.9/3.2	-21.8	31.6	29.6 (3.5%)

This page was published September 22 2019