The Nunavut government has asked the territory's wildlife management board to consider slashing the Baffin Bay polar bear harvest over concerns about bear numbers. (CBC)

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says the future of Canada's polar bear sport hunt depends on a reduced quota.

"Baffin Bay is perhaps the most contentious polar bear population out there, so it's a decision that has to be made carefully," said Craig Stewart, WWF's Arctic director. "There's a lot riding on this decision."

The current quota allows the killing of 105 bears a year in the region, which stretches from Baffin Island in Nunavut to northern Greenland.

In March, 175 countries will meet in Doha, Qatar, to consider the call by the U.S. for a worldwide ban on the trade of polar bear parts under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Delegates from Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and other areas in Canada will be at the meeting.

If the ban is accepted, it would jeopardize Canada's polar bear sport hunting industry.

Most people hunting polar bears for sport in Canada come from other countries and pay lots of money for the opportunity. The worldwide ban would prohibit them from taking home the head or hide as trophies.

Stewart said Canada only has one vote at the meeting, and if the quota isn't cut in Baffin Bay, Canada's polar bear sport hunt might be no more.

"If they came to the table with no cut, that would give strength to those in Europe, which holds a large voting block who want to see the U.S. proposal go ahead," said Stewart.

Rejected last proposal

Daniel Shewchuk, Nunavut's environment minister, rejected the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board's last quota proposal for the area.

Shewchuk said he cannot release what the board proposed due to the confidential nature of the process.

But he said that he too wants a working proposal by March in order to defeat the U.S. proposal.

"I mean what happens in Baffin Bay could have an impact, and hopefully my view is that we have a decision on Baffin Bay polar bears prior to the Qatar meeting," said Shewchuk.

The Nunavut government estimates that the Baffin Bay polar bear population has dropped from 2,000 in 1990 to 1,500.

Stewart said the polar bear population data for Baffin Bay is old and needs updating, and that the WWF is willing to provide some money to help get a new survey going as soon as possible.

However, Inuit have said the government's figures are based on computer models that use old data from 1997, when the last physical survey of Baffin Bay polar bears took place.

Shewchuk will get the final word on the level for the hunt, and he hopes to announce a decision by the end of February.