09/08/2005

See No Walrus, Hear No Walrus, Do Not Speak of the Walrus

Today the cameras were turned off and the beautiful scenes of basking walrus on the rocks on Round Island in the Bering Sea faded to blood red.
 
We are speaking of the cameras that round the clock monitor the walrus herds and feed the images to the internet.
 
The cameras transmit to a popular website where viewers can watch video of walruses snoozing on a rocky beach on Round Island in the Bering Sea. The site has tallied tens of thousands of hits since it went online more than a month ago, and viewer overload often causes it to crash. Click here to visit the walrus cam site (the Alaska Department of Fish & Game website says the live feed will only be active until September 9, 2005).
 
Round Island is a wildlife sanctuary. The reason the cameras have been turned off is because beginning tomorrow, Friday, September 9th, the beach at Round Island will run red with gore and blood, the air will be filled with the painful screams of gut-shot walrus and the walrus will die in agony in their rookery at the hands of native walrus hunters who have been given permission to slaughter the animals once again.
 
The hunt was banned in 1960 after the Walrus Islands, located off Alaska's southwest coast, were designated a wildlife sanctuary by the state. In 1995, Alaska natives were allowed to resume hunting on the island through an agreement with the state and federal government.

Residents of nine villages near Bristol Bay will be allowed to slaughter the walrus on Round Island until October 21st.
 
In addition to demanding the lives of the walrus, the natives have also demanded that the cameras be turned off so that the public will not witness the massacre.
 
Helen Chythlook, executive director of the Bristol Bay Native Association's Qayassiq Walrus Commission, said that Alaska natives have the right to conduct the walrus hunt in privacy. "When you go deer hunting you don't want a camera shining on you," Chythlook said.
 
The cameras, of course, would not be shining on them at all, they would simply be in place as they have been for a month, recording unobtrusively the happenings on the beach.
 
Chythlook and the walrus killers do realize, however, that people viewing the atrocity would be alarmed and would protest such a slaughter of such magnificent and defenseless animals.
 
Captain Paul Watson once witnessed the walrus slaughter in the Bering Sea. "It was a bloody cruel massacre as the Yupik opened up on the gentle creatures with M-16 rifles. The sea and the beach were stained with blood and gore and the screams of the walrus were pitiful. The walrus killers know that people will be outraged to see such an obscenity. There is, however, no justification for the state of Alaska to censor the reality of the hunt. The public should see that this kill is not traditional and they have a right to know what is actually happening instead of the mythical pretensions put forth about tradition and cultural necessity."
 
The walrus have been drastically reduced over the last few centuries. The Atlantic walrus, once found on the beaches of Nova Scotia has been extirpated.
 
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society acknowledges that the walrus hunt is, unfortunately, legal and we have no plans to interfere with it. However, we do believe that the public has a right to see what is happening with wildlife and what happens in a publicly-owned wildlife sanctuary. Native walrus hunters can claim that they have a legal right to kill walrus but native walrus hunters have no right to interfere with the public's right to know what is happening.
 
The state of Alaska and native hunters should not be deciding when walrus can be seen and heard by the public. What happens on the beach at Round Island is the business of all citizens.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)  is the government agency which authorizes the natives to kill walrus.

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
Alaska Region
PO Box 21668
Juneau, Alaska 99802-1668
PH: (907) 586-7221
FX: (907) 586-7249
Email: alaska.webmaster@noaa.gov

Office of Constituent Services
1315 East West Highway, 9th Floor
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Phone: (301) 713-2379
Fax: (301) 713-2385
Division Chief, Michael Kelly - extension 152
Michael.Kelly@noaa.gov