Late every summer, hulking polar bears gather outside Kaktovik, an Alaska Native village on the edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, far above the Arctic Circle. The animals feast on whale carcasses left behind by hunters and then wait for the deep cold to freeze the sea, drawing visitors who come for a rare chance to see polar bears in the wild.
For decades, Kaktovik’s polar bear viewing depended on the relationship between subsistence hunting and the bears that follow the available food. By the early 1980s, people in the village who had boats and knew the local waters could take tourists out to watch the bears roam the barrier islands off the coast or feed on carcasses left by hunters.
Tourism surged after federal officials declared polar bears threatened in 2008, and the village became known for what some call “last chance tourism,” as climate change reduces sea ice that bears use to hunt seals. In Kaktovik, visitors also increasingly arrived in large numbers during the six-week viewing season, and villagers said the influx created friction as outsiders crowded the small community of about 250 people.
The tourism boom also changed how business was shared locally. Village leaders said Kaktovik’s two hotels and restaurants lost some business when larger out-of-town operators began flying tourists in from Fairbanks or Anchorage for day trips, and residents complained that some visitors gawked at locals or moved through their yards.
As visitation grew, residents also raised concerns about practical constraints such as small plane capacity, saying that flights for medical appointments could become difficult for locals during peak periods, leaving stranded residents to pay for expensive hotel rooms in larger cities. Charles Lampe, president of the Kaktovik Inupiat Corp, said those patterns pushed the need for rules that keep tourists from overwhelming the village.
The polar bear tourism largely ended as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and a later federal action. In 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service halted boat tours, citing concerns about how tourists were affecting bear behavior and about whether visitation was overrunning the town.
Kaktovik leaders are now discussing with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service how to address those concerns and restart the industry, potentially as early as 2027. In a statement to The Associated Press, the agency said it is working with Kaktovik “to ensure that any future opportunities are managed in a way that prioritizes visitor safety, resource protection, and community input.”
Among the changes Lampe said the village is seeking is limiting how long a boat can sit in the water near the bears. He said bears can become used to humans if they remain around them for too long, which can create dangerous situations when bears later wander into town looking for food.
Lampe also described how, during the tourism boom, it became harder to haze bears out of the area even with a bear patrol that used nonlethal rounds. He said the patrol had to kill about three or four bears per year during that period, compared with about one per year before the tourism surge, and he said “Our safety was at risk.”
Wildlife officials’ attention to safety has taken on added urgency in Alaska after a fatal polar bear attack in recent years. In 2023, a 24-year-old woman and her 1-year-old son were killed in a polar bear attack in Wales, in far western Alaska—described by the AP as the first fatal polar bear attack in nearly 30 years in the state. Lampe said that since boat tours were halted, bears once again seem more fearful of humans.
Village leaders said polar bear tourism also intersects with Kaktovik’s subsistence whaling season. When a crew lands a whale, it is butchered on a nearby beach, and while the community encourages visitors to watch or even help, Lampe said some tourists recorded or took pictures without permission, which he described as disrespectful.
Sherry Rupert, CEO of the American Indigenous Tourism Association, suggested Kaktovik market itself as a shorter, more managed experience, saying Native communities that are ready for tourists “want them to come and be educated and walk away with a greater understanding of our people and our way of life and our culture.”
Visitors described what they came for during earlier tours, including Roger and Sonia MacKertich of Australia, who visited Kaktovik in September 2019. The AP reported that they spent several days in the village, joined a walking tour led by an elder, and bought souvenirs made by local artists; for Roger MacKertich, a professional wildlife photographer based in Sydney, the highlight included boat tours to see bears on the barrier islands. He said, “That’s nearly as good as it gets,” adding that the bears paid them no attention.