Bill > S561

This bill, titled the Polar Bear Conservation and Fairness Act of 2015, amends the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 to permit the importation of polar bear trophies obtained from sport hunts in Canada. Specifically, it allows the Secretary of the Interior to issue permits for the import of polar bear parts, excluding internal organs, if the hunter can prove the polar bear was legally harvested before February 18, 1997, or if the hunter had previously applied for a permit before May 15, 2008, for a trophy from a population that allowed sport hunt trophy imports before that date, as defined by specific federal regulations. This provision aims to address situations where polar bears were hunted legally under existing rules before they were later classified as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, which would otherwise prohibit such imports.