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Moderator: Clara Fisher
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Kimberly Marchant: Hello and welcome to another in a series of conference calls bringing you closer to the work that your support of World Wildlife Fund makes possible. So my name's Kimberly
Marchant, I'm a member of the Field Program team here at WWF and I'll be moderating the call today.
But before we get going I want to thank you on behalf of all of us here at World Wildlife Fund for your commitment to our work and to our mission. We're talking today with Arctic Program
Managing Director Margaret Williams and Senior Program Officer Dave Aplin. Margaret and Dave will share with us some insight into the Arctic's incredible abundance and tell us how WWF is working to protect this region's valuable species and its people.
So before we get started, just a few points on logistics. So we'll ask that you either keep your phones muted unless you're ready to ask a question. So either use the mute function on your phone or dial *6. When you need to ask a question press *6 again to unmute your phone. There will be three Q&A sessions throughout the call. During each of these sessions you might want to ask your question in one of three ways. If you'd like to ask directly on the phone please state your name and where you're calling from before asking your question.

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You can also email your question to calls@wwfus.org. That's calls@wwfus.org. Additionally you can also ask your questions through Twitter, @wwfcalls. That's @wwfcalls. If you're sending your question electronically you may do so at any time and our panelists will respond during the next available Q&A session.
So this call is scheduled to last one hour and I'll make sure we wrap things up on time. So again you can use the mute function on your phone or dial *6.
Margaret and Dave, thanks for joining me on the call today.
Margaret Williams: Great to be here and it's great that so many of you have joined us.
Kimberly Marchant: Dave, thanks so much for joining us. So Margaret, where are you calling from?
Margaret Williams: I am in Anchorage and Anchorage is the location of our Arctic field office where
WWF-US is based. We also have field staff in Juneau and Homer, but we got six folks here and
I'm in Anchorage and it's a gorgeous spring day. Most of our snow is gone, but we do have - and we have spring weather, so it's a great way to start the day with you all.
Kimberly Marchant: Great, thanks. And Dave, how about you? Where are you dialing in from?
Well we'll make sure that we catch him on the line. We're going to get started with Margaret though.
So the polar bear is one of Earth's truly iconic species, you know, one that immediately conjures images of the Arctic. Could you just tell us a little bit more about polar bears and your experience with them?

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Margaret Williams: Absolutely and I welcome any chance to talk about polar bears. It's one of my favorite subjects and it's one of WWF's priority species in the Artic. I've been so lucky in my job to see polar bears in many places throughout the Artic and one of the most memorable times I have is when I joined the U.S. Geological Survey polar bear team and as you know WWF is a scientific organization. We support a lot of research in the field and on this particular instance I joined the government biologists who were up in Barrow, Alaska launching their spring field season in
Alaska's Beaufort Sea.
And the team was conducting what they call the mark and recapture study and that involves capturing individual polar bears out on the sea ice and with each bear they record lots of information, just basic information about each bear and place a satellite collar on the females to track the movements of the animals. Male bears have such huge necks that they can't hold the collar very well because the collar slips off their smaller head, but each bear, females and males, get a little ear tag with a number on it.
And so if and when these bears are captured again in subsequent years, biologists collect the same data that they had in previous times and over a period of time this information helps to gain a really quick picture about the conditions of individual bears and then the trends overall of the particular polar bear population.
So Alaska has two polar bear populations, one in the Chukchi Sea which we share with Russia and another in the Beaufort Sea which is on the U.S./Canadian border. So I was up in the
Beaufort Sea and the Beaufort Sea is one of the best studied populations in the world. The other one that's very well-studied is in Western Hudson Bay and if any of you have been to Churchill to see the polar bears in Canada, that was the Western Hudson Bay population.
And thanks to research like this mark and recapture study we've learned so much about polar bears. So when I joined the team we launched that in Barrow, Alaska which I mentioned which is

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Moderator: Clara Fisher
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Page 4 a northern most town in the United States and four of us flew out in a small helicopter. And the idea is to basically fly above the sea ice looking for tracks of polar bears so we can find an individual bear. And on the first day I went out we just had an incredible day, there had been a blizzard the day before, so we had this fresh layer of soft, sparkling snow and it was just gorgeous.
And the ice is not what you might think; it's not a flat, uniform surface. It's very dynamic; there are ice ridges that are pushed up from the ocean currents below. They look like small mountain chains sometimes. There are leads or open water areas in the ice. So we were flying all above this and it was just a great way to see this dynamic and beautiful landscape from the air. When we found and tranquilized our first bear on this day it was just an incredible experience for me to be so close and up close and personal I guess you could say with these bears.
I had seen them in the wild, but at a much greater distance and just being next to these bears, the first one we caught was actually female with a cub and I could see how well-adapted they were to a life on ice. For example just looking close up at her head I could see her incredible long snout of this female, and bears have very long and large nasal cavities which help them to sniff out prey that could be up to three miles away. So incredible power to sniff out those ringed seals which they like to eat.
They also have very sharp canines to grab their prey and a huge gap between those canines and their molars which help them to grip those fatty ringed seals when they catch them. And ringed seals are their favorite meal. Polar bears also have fur-lined feet for insulation and traction on the ice and they have incredibly huge, strong legs. And when we were positioning, the polar bear had been tranquilized and she lay down and we had to sort of reposition her so she would be comfortable and it took a couple of us just to move these incredibly strong legs.

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And their paws, this was a relatively small female, about 500 pounds. Healthy, but not like a male which can weigh over 1000 pounds. But she was four times my weight, it took a couple of us to move her legs and her paws were probably two or three times one of my - more than two or three times my hands. So she also had incredibly sharp claws which are important for tearing up prey and that was just a pretty incredible experience.
Kimberly Marchant: Well thanks for bringing us there with you. Do you mind also telling us a little bit about the status of polar bears?
Margaret Williams: There are 22,000 - approximately 22,000 polar bears in the wild. Scientists recognize
19 individual populations and some of them are not very well-studied. We don't know exact numbers for each one. But that number may seem like a large number for 22,000, but the world's polar bear specialists consider polar bears to be vulnerable. That's an official category recognized by the World Conservation Union. And in the United States, polar bears are designated as threatened under the Endangered Species Act and that decision was made in 2008 by the
Department of Interior.
And this is really in large part - this special conservation status is directly related to the fact that the sea ice habitat on which the bears depend is changing rapidly and I'm sure you've all heard about that in the news that the sea ice is diminishing. Polar bears are found in five Arctic countries and WWF works in all of these places and so we really are uniquely positioned to help conserve the species. But I'll stop there just in terms of their conservation status.
Kimberly Marchant: Well that's great. Actually my next question was going to be about what is WWF doing to conserve polar bear?
Margaret Williams: Okay, well we are doing quite a lot. As I mentioned we work in all of the polar bear countries. We have a polar bear biologist who came from the U.S. Geological Survey to WWF

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Page 6 directly and he actually goes - is very involved in research. That's one of our primary activities that we do support, field research on the ground.
We also support the gathering of traditional knowledge because there are a lot of people without official PhD's, but they live up on the Arctic coast and they have their own sites of PhD because they live side by side with polar bears and see them on a regular basis and have helped us to better understand the status and trends and these populations. So we support research.
We're also and that's a very local and on the ground activity - we're also very involved in advocating for policies and practices around the world that will reduce greenhouse emissions.
And really it is climate change which is the number on threat to polar bears and that's probably not news for you all, but what we are - WWF climate policy experts and various are working with all of the countries of the world to try to reduce our energy and our carbon footprint and that will help the polar bear over time.
So but in the meantime other things that we're doing from our office in Alaska include addressing some of the immediate threats to polar bear habitats and as we're seeing a longer season of open water of ice-free time we're seeing the increase of industrial activities such as maritime shipping and plans for offshore oil and gas development. And so WWF is working with government and industry to try to improve planning and standards and in some case advocate for no activity in certain ecologically important areas.
One other thing I'd like to mention is I work with communities. As we're seeing polar bears having less time to spend on ice, we are bringing - polar bears come onto land and spend more time on land. This needs to be fully documented, but we have a lot of stories from communities who are seeing polar bears come into their villages and are concerned. And one of the programs I'm really proud of is the work we've done to support local community polar bear patrols.

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And one of our good friends up in the Russian Arctic has created community patrol which involves local people deterring bears from the villages and that protects both the bears and it also protects people. The patrols also conduct educational activities among schools, among decision makers and it's really a very grass roots and important effort to have local people involved.
And - oh I forget one thing. Do I have another minute?
Kimberly Marchant: Go ahead Margaret.
Margaret Williams: Okay so another aspect of our work with communities and with scientists is international collaboration. And WWF is the only organization that works in all the Arctic countries and all the polar bear countries. And so we are well-placed to facilitate international collaboration and I personally and many of my colleagues are very involved in several international polar bear agreements that we're working on to implement because of course polar bears cross borders.
[Polar bears] don't pay attention to the Alaska/Canada boundary. They cross all of the Arctic countries and so it's important for governments to work together to protect polar bear habitat.
Kimberly Marchant: Well thanks Margaret and thank you for those of you who have joined us since we started. Just as a reminder, if you will use the mute function on your phone or press *6. And before we hear from Dave, let's go ahead and take our first opportunity for some questions. So as a reminder, if you're asking your question directly we ask that you please state your name and where you're located before asking your question. And remember to press *6 to unmute your phone also.
As a reminder, you can also email your questions to calls@wwfus.org or ask your question via
Twitter using the @wwfcalls.

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I'll give you just a second to unmute your phones. Anyone have a question from the phone line?
Well that's okay I've got one that's come in through email. It's from [Caller 1] and he asks: in the last few years there have been new attempts to claim the North Pole area for a country.
Presumably this is so countries can claim various oil fields and other mining rights under the
Arctic ice. What's WWF doing to make sure the Arctic wildlife are protected?
Margaret, do you want to give us an answer on that?
Margaret Williams: Oh sure and thank you [Caller 1], that's a very good question. And that's absolutely true that there is a big push to look at the Arctic as a new frontier for development and one of the exciting things is that WWF has been engaged in these issues for some time in working with
Arctic governments. We're actually celebrating the 20th anniversary of our Arctic program and one of the ways we are planning adjusting these changes on the interest and development of the
Arctic is through the Arctic Council and this is a governmental body with representation from all of the eight Arctic countries.
There are several groups within that council and we provide expertise on shipping, on oil and gas, on protected areas and sensitive wildlife areas. So we work at the highest levels with the U.S.
State Department, with the Ministries of the Environment of all of the Arctic countries. And one exciting thing that's happening right now is the treaty that's being discussed among all the Arctic countries and one of my team members is intricately involved in the U.S. delegation. And that treaty would bring all the countries together to develop an oil spill response plan.
So there are countries working together and then WWF has people on the ground where we as I mentioned work with communities to address some local scale conservation issues. But primarily at that multi-government level it's through the Arctic Council.

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Kimberly Marchant: Great, thank you Margaret. Well I'm just going to let everyone know that we have muted some of your lines even if you haven't done it yourself and so before you ask a question you'll need to press *6 to unmute your phone. So I'll give you a chance to do that.
I'd like to take another question from the callers. I'll give you just one second to unmute if you'd like.
And if not I have a question for you Margaret. Besides saving polar bears, can you just tell us why
WWF is working in the Arctic and why it's so special?
Margaret Williams: Oh absolutely. Well gosh, first of all one of the - I guess I should say something about the Arctic itself and the Arctic - well I sort of mentioned it earlier, but the Arctic is comprised of eight countries just to define the political sphere of the Arctic. Geographers define the Arctic as everything above the Arctic Circle which is 66-1/2 degrees latitude. And the Arctic governments and WWF define the Arctic a little bit more broadly, so in Alaska our Arctic program covers the
Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands which the Bering Sea is shared between Russian and
Alaska.
But in terms of why it's special, throughout the region one of the key features I would say is the incredible abundance of wildlife. They're just remarkable numbers of marine mammals, birds and fish. Over 200 species of birds which nest here every year, 50 species of marine mammals, hundreds of fish. And many of these birds and mammals are found in large concentrations.
I can think of so many times when I've been experiencing this abundance just directly. For example, I remember a boat trip a few years ago being out on the Aleutian Islands and looking out from the deck on the horizon just filled with the sparkliness of 40 spouting humpback whales.
Birds are incredibly plentiful. I've been inside a bird colony of Crested Auklets and these birds are

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These birds were so numerous and so loud it was like being inside a swarm of bees. Not that I've sat inside a swarm, but I imagine that's how it would be. Another thing I would say about the
Arctic is that it is a very vibrant place and it has some remarkably diverse ecosystems. I mentioned the sea ice, but in addition to being polar bear habitat, people I don't think realize that it's such a rich environment.
It's a veritable garden of algae on the bottom of the sea ice. The algae feed plankton which in turn are released during the spring melts and we call that spring bloom that is released with that melting sea ice. And that plankton feeds fish and the fish feed all kinds of marine mammals which in turn are at the key center of the polar bear's diet. So it's not just a cold and lifeless chunk of ice out there, it's really quite a rich place.
Kimberly Marchant: How about Margaret, tell me a little bit about the people of the Arctic and why living there has been so special to them?
Margaret Williams: Sure, well in general the Arctic is fairly sparsely populated compared with so many other places of the world, but there are thousands of indigenous people. Hundreds of different cultures who have been in the Arctic for thousands of years and they've adapted some pretty ingenious ways to live in this extreme environment. We work closely with many communities and indigenous people and because of their traditional livelihoods - I mean, many of them live very modern lifestyles, but they maintain in most regions a traditional lifestyle that depends on the bounty of the sea and the land.
And so that is a really important aspect of the Arctic is that connection between people and the nature.

Kimberly Marchant: Great, thank you Margaret. Well Dave, I'd like to turn to you. First of all, where are you joining us from?
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Well let's see, I think we have an issue with mute with Dave. I'm just going to give you one more chance.
So sure, I want to go ahead and come back to Margaret. Margaret, we have a question that came in before from [Caller 2] and she was asking us a little bit more about the sea ice and shrinking and whether or not polar bears can adapt to living on land or whether or not even new technologies for maybe even creating floating labs might be an option. Could you tell us a little bit more about sea ice shrinking and polar bears?
Margaret Williams: Sure, well indeed the sea ice is shrinking and when we hear that it's a little bit - sometimes it's a little bit confusing. But what's shrinking is the multi-year sea ice and the summer sea ice. So scientists do predict that by mid-century really there good be extremely very little summer sea ice left. We anticipate that there will always be winter sea ice, but that's very think and it's not as long lasting and so that means the time on which polar bears will be able to travel and forage and hunt will be drastically reduced.
But this is happening at such a fast rate, that it's not really possible for polar bears to completely adapt. For example, to find entirely new ways to survive. And polar bears as I mentioned, their primary diet is the ringed seal or the bearded seal and these are highly fatty foods. Because polar bears have such a high caloric need, they have such a high energetic need, they're living on the ice, they're swimming sometimes 60 miles or more, they really need a lot of calories. And so it's not possible for them to live on land.

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Occasionally we’ll find - if they're stuck on land they might find a caribou carcass or a whale or a walrus carcass that has washed ashore, but really they need to be out on the ice to survive.
Some people have suggested, you know, could it be possibly to create some artificial platforms and probably not because as I mentioned the sea ice is this Garden of Eden out there with all this plankton and algae and it's really a life form in and of itself.
So it's really probably not possible to recreate that artificial - with artificial substances. It's - and so really the best solution for polar bears is what we're trying to do is as these changes are taking place, we're trying to reduce other stresses like industrial activity or other direct pressures to them in their habitat. And then at the very global level really trying to adjust the carbon emissions and other greenhouse gas emissions because that's at the source of the climate problem.
Kimberly Marchant: Great, thanks for answering that.
David Aplin: Margaret, this is Dave. I'm on the phone now. I've figured out my technical challenges here in Homer, Alaska. And that was a terrific description of what's going on in the ocean and the system that drives the productivity up there.
Margaret Williams: Oh great, hi Dave.
Kimberly Marchant: Great, thanks for joining us. Dave, tell us specifically why the region's so important to people, you know, in the lower 48?
David Aplin: Well I'm talking to you from Homer, Alaska which is at the southern end of the Kenai
Peninsula. And good morning everybody, I was a little late getting in this morning. I had a situation in my driveway; a young female moose was - had taken up residence there for the morning and was browsing on the brush along the driveway. And we've had a tough winter here and she was - she had right in way at least at that moment. So I'm glad to join you.

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May is the month of quickening here in Alaska and I think what's happening here really makes the point about why the Arctic and the place that we live in is important to the lower 48. You know, next weekend WWF is the co-sponsor of the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival here in Homer and we'll all make our way down to Mud Bay adjacent to the Spit.
And we'll watch hundreds of thousands of migrating shore birds returning from the lower 48 and in fact some from New Zealand and North America making their way back north to the Arctic coastline where they're going to set up shop for a very concentrated breeding system. In fact, they'll be up there by mid-May and we'll see the birds returning back to you as soon as August.
So, you know, the migration is really important, and the Arctic and the Arctic Ocean provide some very important habitat for everything from Red Knots and Bristle-thighed Curlews to the Gray
Whales and the Humpback Whales that we see along the West Coast making their way up here as well. So we're really important as a place where much of the wildlife that you enjoy spends a significant part of their life.
We're also, you know, the food purveyor of North America, in the world, especially when it comes to seafood. I think it's 40% or there abouts of the wild caught fish consumed in North America comes from the Bering Sea and if you've been there during our compact fishing season you'll know that it's just a flurry of activity. Not only for the king crabs that you see on Deadliest Catch, but halibut and cod and as we'll talk about I hope in a few minutes the salmon that we turn every year.
So it's a terrificably productive place and a remarkably important place to the world's wildlife. And as Margaret has pointed out so well, the transformation we're seeing up here in terms of climate change is creating some challenges for the wildlife and the people that live here as well.

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Kimberly Marchant: Great, thanks so much David. Thanks for joining us even after that kind of morning.
So I'd like to take another opportunity for questions. If you're asking your question directly, just going to ask that you please state your name and where you're located before asking a question.
Remember to press *6 to unmute your phone. And as a reminder you can also email your questions to calls@wwfus.org or ask your question via Twitter using @wwfcalls.
So does anyone on the phone have a question?
[Caller 3]: Yes.
Kimberly Marchant: Oh great, go ahead please.
[Caller 3]: Okay my name is [Caller 3]. I'm in Seattle, Washington. I wondered if some control of the fishing industry could aid the Arctic wildlife?
David Aplin: I think that's a terrific question [Caller 3]. The fishing industry in Alaska has actually been proactive in protecting the Arctic wildlife. We have a system called the North Pacific Fish
Management Council which is a - sort of a quasi-governmental body that makes decisions on the sustainable harvest of fish. And a couple years ago they voted to stop - to curtail or to put a hold on fishing north of sort of the middle of the Bering Sea until we better understand that system where the resources are the potential impacts of climate change.
So the industry itself and through participation from WWF and other groups encouraging this action, we've been able to think about the Arctic in sort of a different way right now.
Margaret, you're much more of a fishing expert than I.

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Margaret Williams: That's a very good example. That was a huge decision when it was called the Arctic
Fisheries Management decision and that was really big news and in fact the State Department and WWF have been taking this example around other Arctic countries and say, "Hey, would you do this too? We don't know enough about the Arctic, it's changing so quickly. Before commercial fisheries go into this region we need to really take it easy."
There are places in Norway and Russia actually where fishing takes place at a fairly high Arctic latitude, but in Alaska we are lucky in that decision. Another decision that was made and WWF was also advocating for this was to close an area in the Western Aleutian Islands which are part of Alaska.
That chain of islands, it looks like a string of pearls reaching out towards Russia. The fishery managers decided to close bottom trawling in an area that we know to be rich in corals and there are cold water coral gardens believe it or not in the Arctic in Alaska and Russia. And Norway, these are important nursery grounds for fish and for other small marine invertebrates and vertebrates.
So there's actually quite a lot happening. Of course as I mentioned earlier we're trying to get ahead of the oil and gas development and shipping because that's going to be another threat to wildlife. But that's how we're dealing with the fishing.
Kimberly Marchant: Well thanks so much [Caller 3] for your question. I wanted to ask if anyone else had a question for Dave and Margaret? And just don't forget to *6 to unmute your phone. Would anyone else like to ask a question?
Well the Arctic's really big and so is WWF's network presence. Dave, can you give us some focus on telling us about one of the places where we work?

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David Aplin: Certainly. I spend a majority of my time I think working on issues that have to do with Crystal
Bay, Alaska. And I think back to the fireside chats that FDR used to do. I was not there, but I've read about them and seen photos and listened to some of them. He always had folks refer to their
National Geographic map and I'm sorry we don't have a map for you today, but you do possess with you a map of Alaska and it's actually your right hand.
So if you would take your right hand, make a pointing gesture so your three fingers are folded back into the palm and your index finger is out and your thumb is up. Now rotate your hand so you're looking at the back of your hand and there you have a map of Alaska where the Juneau and the panhandle is your thumb and the index finger is the Alaska Peninsula. You'll have to draw in the Aleutian Islands out there arching out into the Bering Sea.
You know, Barrow's up in the top. The notch between your middle finger and your index finger is
Bristol Bay. And we think of that as sort of the Galapagos of the North or our own Ocean of Eden up there. It's a terrifically productive place and it's, you know, most famous is I think I mentioned before for things like the king crab and the opilio crabs that the Deadliest Catch fisherman harvest every year.
It's a remarkably productive place not only for crabs and fish, but for birds. There are birds that are migrating to and from four different continents that use Bristol Bay as a jumping of place. It's famous for marine mammals, not only the whale species that either spend the summers there, but also the species that migrate through on their way up to the Arctic Ocean and back to warmer waters in the fall an winter.
I think maybe you've heard about Bristol Bay because of the productive salmon runs. Margaret and I, and our CEO Carter Roberts were out in Bristol Bay last summer fishing for red salmon and you actually get your legs banged up as the salmon swim by and bump into you. You know, there are 38 or 40 million salmon each year that are returning to their natal streams to spawn and that

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Page 17 system, that fishery has existed as a commercial fishery for 125 years and it's fed the native people of the region for thousands of years.
So it's a place that is unsurpassed in so many ways that it's a terrific place to be associated with.
Kimberly Marchant: And obviously really important. Can you tell us what in particular that WWF is working and needing to protect?
David Aplin: Sure, you know, as Margaret mentioned, one of the things we face throughout the Arctic is a changing climate and I won't talk about the specific impacts to Bristol Bay too much here. The other two impacts that we're dealing with on a very regular and first-hand basis is the potential for offshore oil and gas development in the bay and the development of North America's largest open pit gold and copper mine, the Pebble Mine at the headwaters of the bay.
So Bristol Bay right now is facing two different threats, sort of bookend threats. We've been engaged in the challenge of keeping oil and gas development out of this very productive ecologically rich area for about the last six years. And we've had some success. The area was protected after the Exxon oil spill for about 20 years, but then during the last presidential administration those protections were rolled back and we were all set to see oil lease being granted as of 2011.
But we've been working to help create a coalition of native people, of commercial fisherman and women and conservation groups. We call it the Fish Basket coalition; we have a Web site called fishbasket.org that has mounted a very successful campaign. We've bumped Bristol Bay off the oil sale lease schedule at least until 2017 and we're very optimistic that the president may permanently protect Bristol Bay even before the end of this administration.

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So our efforts there have been terrific and very positive. And now we're turning our attention to the mine that I mentioned. You know, those salmon are making their way up to the streams that they hatched out of their eggs in and at the head of two of the major watersheds there, the
Pebble Mine is theoretically on the books to be created.
We're engaged with local folks and with the subsistence and commercial fishing groups as well as other conservation organizations to try and stop the mine developers and the Pebble partnership from moving forward with that process.
And Kimberly, I just mentioned that it's one of the things that WWF is really good at, at going from local situations and challenges and taking those toward global solutions so that we're able in that campaign to take advantages of our relationship with WWF-UK and other WWF programs in
Europe and around the world to impact the potential mine developers and to expose them to risks that will make them think twice about developing the mines.
So we're in the trenches on both those issues, on oil and gas development and on the Pebble
Mine.
Kimberly Marchant: Well thanks so much for that Dave. We’re going to take our final opportunity now for some questions. If you're asking your question directly we ask that you state your name and where you're located and remember to press *6 to unmute your phone.
Does anyone on the phone have a question?
[Caller 4]: Can I ask a question?
Kimberly Marchant: Please.

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[Caller 4]: My name is [Caller 4] and I live in Freehold, New Jersey. And I have a special interest in
Norway as I lived there for a few years when I was younger. And I was just wondering how cooperative the Norwegian government is since it is an oil exploration country and how - what are they doing about saving the polar bears?
Margaret Williams: Sure, I can take that question. Thank you. Let's see, well first of all the polar bears of
Norway are primarily found near the Spitsbergen archipelago, otherwise known as Svalbard and the Norwegian government has created a national park there. And WWF does quite a lot of work to also support field research and conservation of that population.
Norway really depends on the oil industry. In general, the standards are considered very high, but of course there have been oil spills and even a simple barge operation last year resulted in a huge oil spill in Southern Norway, not in polar bear country. Norway has been actually progressive in protecting some cold water corals. The Norwegian government has also put a temporary fishing ban on Norway's version of Bristol Bay which is around the Lofoten Islands.
You may know those islands which are incredibly productive cod fisheries ad so I would say it's a mixed bag, but there are some good things happening there.
Kimberly Marchant: Great, thank you for that [Caller 4]. Would anyone else like to ask a question?
[Caller 5]: Yes I would.
Kimberly Marchant: Great, go ahead please.
[Caller 5]: This is [Caller 5] from Long Branch, New Jersey. I'm calling to find out how well the Coca Cola
Company did with the bottle caps and can numbers in getting the polar bear a new Arctic home and what was that home?

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Thank you.
Margaret Williams: [Caller 5], I'm so glad you asked that. This is Margaret. That was - I forgot to mention that the WWF programs in Canada and Greenland is to create a special what we call management area - a special area for polar bears and people and other Arctic wildlife in the region which is expected to hold permanency ice the longest. And that's at the very, very high
Arctic in Canada and Greenland.
And so WWF has been working with Coca Cola on water conservation, on wetland conservation and other parts of the world Coke has supported this work and they're actually making changes to their bottling practices and their industrial practices to conserve water and reduce carbon emissions. And so when they heard about our polar bear work, as you know they use polar bears as one of their holiday mascots and they said, "Well we're really interested in this idea of a polar bear special Arctic home" and launched this campaign inviting consumers to donate.
And it was successful. I believe over a million people donated and Coke will match the donations.
And so that is all going to go up to the work in Greenland and Canada in the coming year to help do more research, to help engage the local communities in planning this special area and to support that kind of work.
Kimberly Marchant: Thank you for asking that [Caller 5]. We have a question coming in from the email and it's from [Caller 6] asking how much have we accomplished in reducing the stressors to the area?
Margaret Williams: Let's see, well we are just seeing so much change happening so quickly and one of the things about the Arctic and one of the exciting things about working up here is that historically

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Page 21 it has been undeveloped and fairly pristine. And so I would say there are stressors emerging, stressors like ship traffic. Stressors like offshore oil and gas development.
And in Alaska we have been very successful in convincing the government to hold off on oil and gas over the last four years, although unfortunately this summer we expect to see exploration in what we call the polar bear seas in Alaska, the Chukchi and Beaufort Sea. And that is just a huge concern for us because despite some assurances from the oil companies we know it's very possible to have an oil spill.
And you all remember the consequences of the Gulf Oil spill and despite, you know, beautiful weather and having lots of ships and people to respond there were over 400 million gallons spilled of oil. And in Alaska we don't have anywhere near the facilities to respond to an oil spill.
So that's a huge concern and we, WWF, and many people are working on that and advocating to the administration that it's too risky right now.
And we are not as you know - WWF is not an anti-development organization at all. We support responsible development, responsible industry. But right now we feel it's very risky and that we're just not ready for oil development in the still icy, stormy place which is dark half the year.
David Aplin: This is Dave; I would just add a couple more thoughts. And one is I think our work in Bristol
Bay on offshore oil and gas, the progress we've made there is a good indication of reducing a stressor. You know, one thing we haven't mentioned which is our work with fisheries policy and while some of those changes are incremental with regard to things like the by-catch of salmon and other fisheries, especially the pollock fishery. Or our work in Russia to reduce poaching of salmon.
Those are things that ultimately do reduce the stress on the wildlife and fish that are in the system. And the last thing I mentioned, one of the things that WWF is good at is working globally

as I've mentioned before and our work to try and push for some kind of coordinated Arctic governance is a terrificably important and forward looking approach to protecting the Arctic and reducing stressors.
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And as Margaret mentioned there are a number of countries that reign the Arctic that we have nothing like the compact that manages the Antarctic and we're working to try and move that forward to make long-term polices and regulations and agreements that help us take care of the
Arctic especially in this time of change.
Kimberly Marchant: Thank you. Before I go back to the emails, does anyone have a question from the call?
[Caller 7]: Yes.
Kimberly Marchant: When you're ready ask your question.
[Caller 7]: Yes I would like to know if something can also be done about all the dirty air coming from
China? I mean, I see pictures and the snow is just brown.
Margaret Williams: I guess -- this is Margaret -- I would say that I don't know what all the solutions are, but China is certainly growing incredibly fast. One of the things WWF is doing in China is we actually have a huge program of staff in China and we are working in different industry sectors to try to address the way commodities are consumed and developed.
So, but around the world - so to reduce pressures, not just on the climate change, but on all the countries we have staff working on climate emissions, on improving emission standards and industry. And in fact I think we're making more progress with the industry sector in some cases

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Page 23 than we are with government. But I don't know if I can answer that probably to great detail - with great detail.
Kimberly Marchant: Great, thanks. [Caller 8] sent in a question prior to the call. Her sister was in Alaska about two years ago and they both share a concern about hunting of polar bear. So what does
WWF do in working with communities to protect polar bear?
Margaret Williams: Okay sure. Well as I mentioned, indigenous people have lived in Alaska for thousands of years and that lifestyle has always been linked to wildlife and ocean life and so people do actually hunt marine mammals. People still conduct a whale harvest which is actually going on now up in the north. Some people do hunt polar bears, hunt seals and so - but we know these stress to be currently sustainable in Alaska.
There are a couple populations where we have concern, maybe a little bit of hunting pressure, but we're working directly with those communities. And so hunting is really not a major threat to polar bears. What else did I want to say about that? Oh, there are two laws, the Endangered Species
Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act which allow indigenous people to continue their subsistence ways in harvesting marine mammals. So that they're protected under law, those activities.
One of the things I mentioned I've been involved in some international agreements and one is the
U.S./Russia polar bear agreement and that's a good example where two countries are getting together to say let's manage this polar bear population together. And that was - that led to the establishment of a limit on numbers of polar bears that could be taken. That was actually a very new and progressive step forward.
In general, polar bear hunting is really decreasing because in part of the ice conditions, because the older generation is not able to get out there as much. The younger generation is not taking

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Page 24 part in these traditional activities as much. And so that's probably worth noting. But as I mentioned, WWF has supported community polar bear patrols.
So we're helping people get prepared for polar bears coming into town and rather than just reacting immediately with say shooting them because there's some fear, we're working to establish some education, some deterrence activities so polar bears are deterred out of the villages with vehicles or rubber bullets in some cases. And so there's definitely awareness that we need to work on the community aspect of protecting people and protecting the bears alike.
Kimberly Marchant: Thank you Margaret. [Caller 9] also sent in a question asking also about Antarctic species, so I was wondering if one of you could speak to you a little bit about in the face of the changing climate what we're looking at? Maybe even differences or similar threats with the different poles?
Margaret Williams: Sure, I could say a word about that and Dave, maybe you would want to add. One huge difference just in thinking about the geography of the Arctic is that as an ocean surrounding by continents and the Antarctic is a continent surrounded by oceans. And maybe I'm stating the obvious, but one of the things that's happening in the Arctic is that as the summer sea ice is reducing the dark water - the time when the dark water can absorb heat is increasing. And that creates a kind of positive feedback loop and that's accelerating.
In Antarctica that continent is covered with miles and miles of snow and ice. And so the melting process is taking place in a different way and more slowly. In Antarctica the area that's changing the most is the western part of the Antarctic Peninsula. There certainly have been some observations of impacts on Adelie's especially - Adelie penguins and increased precipitation. But in general - and I should say in the world - the polar regions of the places in the world that are changing most rapidly because of climate change.

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I would say Antarctica has more of a buffer because of that deep, deep snow and ice cover and the Arctic is more vulnerable right now to those positive feedback loops.
Kimberly Marchant: Well [Caller 10] sent in a question saying ” in 1955 I picnicked on Homer Spit and there was nothing but sand and driftwood. I believe it's now overrun with development. What's the direct human impact ”?
David Aplin: Earlier I mentioned that there's a Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival next week. That festival is celebrating its 20th year and that's a direct response to what community folks here perceived as developmental threats to that area. There were a few people that were keeping an eye on those migrating shorebirds every year and they realized that the development of a hotel or a series of restaurants or something could impact.
So they worked proactively to start celebrating the wildlife and the opportunities people have to experience wildlife and now this festival which happens on a shoulder season in Homer's very short tourist season is a major draw of ecotourists that come here to learn and to see and experience it. So I think that's an example of how some Alaskans are dealing with pressures, both from industrial development, but also from unmanaged tourism.
You know, it's a complicated thing on a larger scale here and probably the most obvious impact of the tourism that we see in some parts of Alaska, at least the more accessible parts of Alaska is impacts on fisheries. So right now we're in a statewide argument about how to allocate salmon and how to allocate especially halibut and other fish. And so there are direct effects and different user groups weighed in and try and have their way because we all want what we can get I guess as a human species.
Our role as WWF is to always bring science to the table and bring thoughtful solutions and I think as Margaret has demonstrated over her decade up here, we're often the convener that bring

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Page 26 together the various interest groups. Our Pribolof Island Collaborative would be a good example of the change to bring groups together to come up with different solutions. So that said, Alaska remains a remarkable, diverse, abundant place that I hope you all have an opportunity to visit or at least to learn more about.
Kimberly Marchant: Great, thanks for all of your great questions. You know, to close things out today, I think we'd all like to know what we can do to help. I know that [Caller 11] sent in a question about what we can do to help polar bears. So Margaret, would you get us started on what it is we can do?
Margaret Williams: Oh absolutely. Well first thing that comes to my mind is we definitely need help on climate change and I think everyone can make a difference in his or her daily practices first of all by making consumer choices that impact energy use. Having energy efficient houses, energy efficient cars. In places that are subject to drought, having gardens that don't take up a ton of water because that takes energy and it has a huge impact on the water table.
We can encourage our cities to have better public transportation, smart planning, car pooling, green roofs and there's so many things that can be done on a small scale. And then we really need our supporters to make their voice heard to their elected officials just to say there is science that shows the sea ice is diminishing and that the climate is changing.
And that is linked to carbon emissions - to greenhouse gas emissions. And whatever your background is in the political spectrum, this is something that is important for life on Earth and human, you know, quality of life. And so we really would love your support in letting our elected officials know that we need good climate legislation. And of course your support as members, your financial support, your support being able to say to a congressman, "We have a million members and they're in California and they're in Norway and New Jersey" and that's huge.

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So we really appreciate your support. And I know we have some other ideas.
David Aplin: Yes I would just add to that - I'm not sure if you folks on the call are members of our
Conservation Action Network. If you go to the WWF home page, worldwildlife.org, there's a button there says How To Help, if you click that and then click to take action, you can become one of our conservation activists. And we communicate regularly on important issues and let you weigh in to reach out to the administration or Congress or whatever the target of those initiatives are.
And they've been effective in helping us with oil and gas and a number of the other campaigns.
So that's one thing I would do. I would also encourage folks to look for MSC [Marine Stewardship
Council], that's a certification for sustainable fisheries, to enjoy seafood, but to enjoy seafood that's produced sustainably.
And I guess finally I would just say follow the - well let me back up. There's a famous Japanese philosopher that said, "In order to care for a river we need to care about the river." And so if we can make sure we stay connected to the world around us by getting outside, by exploring the trails in your neighborhood and traveling as you will and to connect with that place that brings inspiration and hope and sustenance that gets us through the challenges of our - of the daily life we meet.
That motivation can help sustain us and impact the world in a positive way.
Kimberly Marchant: Oh great, thank you. Well we're out of time, but thank you Margaret and Dave for taking us to your backyard today and for joining us on the call and your insight into the work.
Thanks also to everyone on the phone for joining us today. If you have further questions please email calls@wwfus.org. That's calls@wwfus.org. You may also call Clara Fisher at 202-495-

4729. If you'd like to share this call with a friend or hear it again yourself, it'll be available as a podcast in about a week at www.worldwildlife.org/calls. If you'd like more information on WWF's work around the world you can visit our Web site at www.worldwildlife.org.
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And we hope you'll join us for our next call in June, but for now thank you again for joining us and thank you for your continued support of World Wildlife Fund.
END