It has been reported that a Canadian researcher has logged a scientific first, when he witnessed a polar bear holding his breath for nearly three minutes. Ian Stirling, a biologist, saw a bear staying underwater for about three minutes as he tried observing a group of bearded seals on an ice floe.

He did so during his expedition off Norway's Svalbard Islands. According to Rinie van Meurs, Stirling's Dutch co-author, said "The bear was in bad condition, very skinny, and was of course very desperate for food".

Their paper was published in August in the journal Polar Biology. The bear was not in a good condition; it was extremely skinny, and certainly needed food.

Ice is the basis of hunt by polar bears. However, since summertime ice cover is disappearing, they have to find food through other means. Polar bears are increasingly moving towards land in order to consume caribou and snow geese. As a result of their capability to spend long time underwater, they are expected to have been going to longer and deeper dives.

Three seals were on target of the Svalbard bear. He could have at times appeared for air without being observed if the nearby sea had been bobbing with ice. However, van Meurs said that as there was nothing in the way except open water, he was having "no choice than to start his dive a long way . from where the seals were (located". According to the report, the dive goes beyond anything reported earlier.