MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION - Annual Report for 1995 



Figure 3. Range of the Pacific walrus 



by American whalers. The resulting depletion in the 

 1870s caused widespread starvation and death among 

 Native villages around the Bering Sea that were reliant 

 on walruses for food. When walruses became scarce, 

 commercial hunting pressure diminished, and walrus 

 numbers rebounded in the late 1800s. Early in the 

 1900s Pacific walruses were again taken by U.S., 

 Canadian, and Norwegian traders who used the 

 animals to barter with Alaska and Chukotka Natives 

 for furs. This practice declined in the 1920s, again 

 leaving walrus numbers depleted but apparently not so 

 depleted as in the 1870s. The third cycle began in the 

 1930s when Russian hunters began taking about 8,500 

 walruses annually for hides, oil, and ivory. By the 

 mid-1950s, the population was again severely deplet- 

 ed. The most recent recovery occurred in the 1960s 

 and 1970s under management measures adopted 



independently by the State of Alaska and the Soviet 

 Union. 



In the United States, lead management authority for 

 marine mammals shifted to the Federal Government 

 following passage of the Marine Mammal Protection 

 Act in 1992. Under provisions of the Act allowing 

 transfer of this responsibility to interested state 

 governments, the State of Alaska requested a return of 

 management authority for walruses and certain other 

 marine mammals. As discussed in previous annual 

 reports, problems arose in acting on this request and, 

 after a protracted period of uncertainty about who 

 would have lead responsibility over the long term, the 

 State of Alaska decided in 1988 not to pursue its 

 interest in this regard. 



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