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Sunday 05.02.2012

Iceland will set up a polar bear task force

Iceland responds to the killing of two polar bears which landed on its shores.

Iceland's minister of environment, Thórunn Sveinbjarnardóttir, has established a task force to go over the recent handling of polar bears.

The task force consists of representatives from the police, the Environment Agency of Iceland, the Icelandic Institute of Natural History and a veterinarian.

The aim of the group is to go over the arrivals of the two bears and come up with a functional plan on how to catch polar bears alive when they swim ashore. Morgunbladid reports

However, no equipment exists in Iceland to catch polar bear alive, and the task force’s first project is to acquire the necessary equipment.



The task force is considering buying the cage that the Danish expert brought over as well as long range tranquilizing guns.

The coast guard’s helicopter flew over the northwest of Iceland yesterday to look out for polar bears. No bears were in sight.

The coast guard flies regularly over the drifting ice area, north-west of Iceland and will continue to do so until the drifting ice is gone.

There are records of over 500 polar bears in Iceland since the settlement in the 9th century.

The oldest record of a polar bear sighting is from 890.

Records of bear arrivals are most frequent in the West fjords, the Northern shore and the East fjords, but several bears have also been spotted on the south coast.

The legacy of polar ears lives on in several place names like i.e. Húnaflói (bear cub bay) and folk lore.

Legend has it that bears do not attack their namesakes, so in areas were polar bears were frequent, many people bore names like Björn (bear) Sveinbjörn (young bear) or Brina (she-bear) Fréttabladid reports.