ZECO TRAVEL TALK

All of us at Zegrahm Expeditions are very pleased to see today’s announcement by Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, that the polar bear is now officially listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Using 28 years of research and study findings on receding sea ice—the primary habitat of polar bears—the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed the threatened listing in January 2007. The dramatic loss of ice in the past five years exceeded all previous records, and in the last year alone, Arctic ice fell to the lowest levels ever recorded by satellite. One of the five determining factors in listing a species is evidence of “present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of habitat.”

Many of our travelers who have joined us on past expeditions to Spitsbergen, Greenland, and Baffin Island have witnessed polar bears hunting from ice floes or pebbly shores—a sight never to be forgotten. In 2008 & 2009 we are continuing our tradition of adventures in the far north with expeditions to Greenland and the Svalbard Archipelago with the renewed hope of continuing to see these magnificent animals.