Are there more polar bears or fewer polar bears than there were fifty years ago?

Question

Are there more polar bears or fewer polar bears than there were fifty years ago?

Answer 1

Probably more, because they only started regulating polar bear hunting about 50 years ago.  The number of polar bears killed peaked at 1,250 in 1968.

http://pbsg.npolar.no/Meetings/PressRele...

Then the International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears was signed in 1973, allowing populations to recover.  

However, nobody was taking a polar bear census 50 years ago, so it's impossible to answer your question precisely.

So there's a little history lesson.  For current conditions, see the link below for an interview with Dr. Nick Lunn of the Canadian Wildlife Service, who studies polar bear populations.  Here is an excerpt:

"The population in the Western Hudson Bay region has declined 22% in 17 years, to less than 1000 bears.

The condition of adult bears has steadily been decreasing, with the average weight of females declining toward a threshold at which the chances of it bearing viable cubs becomes doubtful. As Nick explained, that threshold may be reached, if the trends continue as they have, as soon as 2012.

The principal cause for the deteriorating condition of this population of bears is the early break-up of sea ice. Bears have to go further and work harder to find their principal source of food, the ring seal, and thus the female gives birth to her cubs more emaciated and less able to nurture her cubs. More cubs are not surviving to adulthood. The overall threat to the population is that current generations of bear will not be replaced."

Answer 2

More.  Many many more !!

And they swim 60 miles chasing baby seals to eat, so they don't drown as Algore would have many believe.