Kaktovik

Kaktovik is an Iñupiat village of about 250 people on Barter Island, on Alaska's Beaufort Sea coast, where polar bears come ashore every late summer and fall to wait for the sea to freeze.²³ It sits on the northern edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 382 miles north of Fairbanks.⁹ Before the pandemic it was often called the polar bear capital of the United States, and more than 1,000 visitors a year came to watch the bears, mostly from small boats.² Today that trade is on hold: when we checked on October 15, 2026, the refuge's own website said boat-based polar bear viewing on refuge waters around Kaktovik "is currently unavailable."¹ This page sets out why the tours stopped, what could bring them back, the federal and village rules, and how to get there.

Is Kaktovik closed to polar bear tours?

Yes, to boat tours: a US Department of the Interior order paused permits for commercial boat-based polar bear viewing in 2021, and the tours have not reopened.²³ Kaktovik itself paused visitors during the pandemic in 2020, and the federal order followed a year later while officials studied the industry's effects.² Land-based tours carried on after the order, but guides told Alaska Public Media that the boats had been the more reliable way to find bears.² One local operator, Akook Arctic Adventures, still posts the letter it received in April 2024 saying the boat program "continues to be on hold" and that no permits were being issued.¹³

Why it stopped matters if you hope to go back. Residents said visitors filled the seats on small planes that elders needed for medical trips, photographed people without asking, and crowded the town during the whaling season.²³ Bears grew used to boats and people: the president of the Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation, Charles Lampe, told the Associated Press that the village bear patrol had to kill three or four bears a year at the height of the boom, against perhaps one a year before it.³ A former guide who helped found the patrol said the bears were getting used to the guides and boats.²

When could Kaktovik polar bear tours reopen?

No date is set, but Alaska Native leaders are in talks with the US Fish and Wildlife Service about restarting the tours, perhaps as early as 2027.³ The agency told the Associated Press 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."³

The village has said what a restart should look like. Its 2024 study proposed charter flights, so visitors stop taking seats on scheduled planes, and a tourism nonprofit owned by the village, the city and the Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation that would hold the permits, help local captains get licensed, supply boats and safety gear, and manage how many people are on the water at once.² Village officials planned an agreement between the three local bodies in spring 2026 as a first step.² Lampe also wants a limit on how long a boat may sit near the bears.³ The Kaktovik Inn, owned by the village corporation, already shows a "coming soon" page for a locally run tourism cooperative offering bear viewing, northern lights and cultural tours.¹¹¹² Until the refuge's announcement changes, treat any 2027 boat tour as unconfirmed.¹

What is the best month to see polar bears in Kaktovik?

September has been the peak: bears gather near Barter Island between August and October, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game says most visitors came in September.⁴ The bears rest on the barrier islands just offshore and walk into the village area to feed on the remains of bowhead whales taken by Iñupiat hunters.⁴ Up to 80 bears come on land near Kaktovik in late summer and fall, a number that has grown as the sea ice shrinks.²

These bears belong to the Southern Beaufort Sea subpopulation, estimated at about 900 in 2010 and listed by the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group as likely decreased over both the long and short term.¹⁵⁴

What are the rules for viewing polar bears at Kaktovik?

Federal law sets the baseline: polar bears are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act, and any change in a bear's natural behavior caused by your presence can count as disturbance.⁵ "Take" under these laws covers harassing, pursuing or disturbing a bear, not only harming it.⁶

• Guides. Kaktovik and the refuge recommend viewing with a guide. Guides permitted on refuge waters have shown proof that they meet federal and state rules, and the state advises you to confirm your guide is operating legally and to ask for its safety plan.⁴
• Commercial permits. The lagoon waters around Barter Island are managed by the refuge, and any commercial activity on them needs a special use permit, with a $100 fee, liability insurance and bonding; processing can take up to 45 days.⁵
• Aircraft and drones. Pilots should stay at least 1,500 feet up and half a mile away from bears, and drones are banned on the refuge without advance authorization.⁶⁸
• Camping. The refuge tells travelers to avoid camping on the coast from mid-July through October, to keep their distance from Barter Island along the coast, and to camp a mile or two inland. Bears are most likely within 25 miles of the coastline.⁷
• Group size. The recommended maximum is 7 people on land and 10 on the water.⁸
• Self-defense. Killing a bear is allowed only in self-defense or to save a person in immediate danger, and it must be reported to the Fish and Wildlife Service within 48 hours.⁷

The refuge charges no entry fee and has no roads or visitor facilities of any kind.⁸¹

What are Kaktovik's own rules for visitors?

The village and its landowners add their own rules on top of the federal ones: you need permission to go onto private land, consent before filming people or whaling, and care not to get in the way of the subsistence hunt.⁵⁸

• Private land. The Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation owns 144 square miles around the village, and entry onto private land within the refuge is allowed only with the landowner's prior approval. Public easements cross some private land near Barter Island.³⁸
• Filming people. The City of Kaktovik generally prohibits filming individuals, their property or subsistence activities such as whaling without the consent of those affected.⁵
• The whale bone pile. The bone pile where bears feed lies on US Air Force land, and commercial filming there needs an Air Force permit. The North Slope Borough also requires a permit for commercial photography.⁵
• Whaling. When a crew lands a whale it is usually butchered on a nearby beach. The community encourages visitors to watch or even help, but photographing without permission is considered disrespectful.³ The federal photography guidance strongly recommends that crews contact the city or tribal government first so their work does not interfere with whaling.⁵
• Bears in town. The mayor, Nathan Gordon Jr., leads the village bear patrol, which drives the outskirts and uses cracker shells to scare bears away from houses.²

How do you get to Kaktovik?

You fly: Kaktovik is one of the communities near the refuge with regularly scheduled air service from Fairbanks, and most refuge visitors arrive by air.⁸ Wright Air Service lists Kaktovik (Barter Island, airport code BTI) among the villages it serves from Fairbanks.¹⁰ Planes are small, and weather delays are common, according to the state.⁴ One tour seller warns that weather delays or cancels about one in four scheduled flights to some remote parts of Alaska, so plan spare days.¹⁴ The city gives these distances:⁹

Barter Island is a tundra plateau about 4 miles wide, separated from the mainland by a quarter mile of shallow lagoon in summer and joined to it by sea ice in winter.⁹ Rooms are scarce.⁴ The Kaktovik Inn, run by the village corporation, works as a man-camp that charges by the bed, so you may share a room with another guest, and when we read its site on October 15, 2026 its restaurant was temporarily closed.¹¹

How much does a Kaktovik polar bear tour cost?

There is no price you can book: the refuge lists boat-based viewing as unavailable, and the last word a local operator posted from the Interior Department, in April 2024, was that no permits were being issued.¹¹³ The figures still online carry no year, so treat them only as a rough guide to what a restarted tour might cost:

• Akook Arctic Adventures, a Kaktovik operator, shows its operating season as "To Be Determined" and still lists undated boat rates of $120 an hour per person through September and $150 an hour in October, with up to 6 guests a boat.¹³
• Planet Earth Adventures, a Fairbanks tour seller, still advertises 5-day and 7-day boat trips from Fairbanks at $5,900 and $7,450 per person, with September dates that carry no year and say only "call for availability". It takes a 50% non-refundable deposit at booking and needs at least 4 guests to run.¹⁴

Planet Earth says its local guide is authorized and permitted, which does not square with the refuge's announcement, so ask any seller for the current year's refuge special use permit before you pay anything.¹⁵¹⁴ For comparison, a trip with a firm 2027 price, Natural Habitat Adventures' 6-day Classic Polar Bear Expedition in Churchill, costs $8,995 per person sharing, plus $1,689 for the charter flights from Winnipeg.¹⁶

Where else can you see polar bears near Alaska?

Utqiagvik, on Alaska's northern tip, is the only other Alaska community the state names for polar bear viewing, and it warns that a sighting there is not assured; most land around the town belongs to the Ukpeagvik Iñupiat Corporation, so check with it before you head out of town.⁴ For a trip you can book now, look at Churchill on Hudson Bay, where bears gather to wait for freeze-up in October and November and tours watch them from tundra vehicles,¹⁶ or at a summer voyage to Svalbard. Our polar bear tours guide compares the options, and the polar bear page covers the species. Kaktovik is part of our wider Arctic coverage.