Poaching fears as dead walrus herd found on Alaska beach

A person associated with a close-by Air Force radar station reported the sighting near Cape Lisburne to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Crystal Leonetti says agency investigators have not returned from the site at Cape Lisburne but that the case is now in the hands of the U.S. Attorney office. “You have to go out and investigate”. As per reports, only Alaska Natives residing in the state may hunt walrus. The spokesperson added that the walruses could have died while they were in the ocean.

Initial reports suggest the walruses, found on an isolated beach, were shot and several had been decapitated, likely by poachers after the mammals’ ivory tusks.

Federal investigators, however, have not yet determined the walruses’ cause of death and are hesitant to definitively say that the animals had been killed for their tusks.

Nevertheless, there is still a high demand for carved walrus ivory, known as “scrimshaw”, which can be sold on the black market for more than $300 per pair.

When no floes of Arctic sea ice are available, the animals usually head to nearby beaches. Nevertheless, the federal authorities permits anybody to acquire the ivory, tooth and bones of the animals which have been discovered lifeless on seashores or on the shore that’s located some quarter of a mile from the water, supplied that they observe a number of guidelines. “We really appreciate people notifying us promptly”.

Reports of the deaths come as conservationists fear that climate warming has reduced summer sea ice which walrus use as a platform from which to rest and dive for clams, sea snails and other food. Arctic sea ice hit its summer minimum this month 1.7 million square miles, down 240,000 square miles from 2014, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Walrus breed in the Bering Sea. It’s the fourth-lowest level on record for minimum summer sea ice.

An estimated 35,000 animals were pictured in October hauling themselves on to land north of Point Lay, about 500km (310 miles) south-west of Barrow. As ice melts, walrus move north over new feeding areas.

When the animals are grouped shoulder-to-shoulder in massive herds, they are subject to stampedes if startled by an airplane, hunter or polar bear.