167 



Mr. DiNGELL. The story suggested that, it was on the order of 

 thousands of these animals that drifted ashore this year. I saw the 

 figure of 11,000. 1 think it was probably high. 

 Do you know what the number was ? 



Mr. Hansex. No. I have not seen a figure. It could be more this 

 year than normal but. unfortunately, it is a result of what is a normal 

 native harvest of these animals. 



Mr. DiNGELL. It does not sound very normal when you are having 

 this amount of waste. 



Mr. Hansen. It would not be normal if that number is true. I can- 

 not believe the number would be nearly that great because the herd 

 is not large enough to sustain that. 



Mr. DiNGELL. That does not necessarily mean it was not that large 

 since the native is not considering sustained yield questions. 



Mr. DiNGELL. I am going to come back to that one thing. We have 

 communicated with the Interior Department, and in the report from 

 Interior, dated September 8, I would urge you to consider this report 

 on H.R. 10420, signed by Mr. Pecora. He says additional regulatory 

 authority, if properly conceived, would contribute to the preservation 

 of these species, subject to a variety of natural and manmade in- 

 cursions. And he goes on and says, we have a Federal program 

 responsibility under the official Wildlife Act of 1956, not only for 

 the polar bear, but for the walrus and sea otter. 



So, Interior does have jurisdiction over these s^^ecies. 

 I want to get right down to the hard point about the amount of kill of 

 these walrus. 



Now, if the natives are going out there and conducting one great 

 big slaughter and retrieving one out of several, you people are going 

 to have to come up with something to liold that wastage down. 



I do not know how you are going to do it, but if you can figure out 

 a way, we will welcome it. 



What is the retrieval of these species, 1 in 5, 1 in 2, or do you 

 know? 



Mr. Hansen. Unfortunately, we do not have particularly good in- 

 formation. 



Mr. DiNGELL. You have jurisdiction of these species. 

 Mr. Hansen. This is one of the areas in which we desperately need 

 research. 



Dr. LiNDUSKA. We only have $4,000 a year. 



Mr. DiNGELL. It does not appear to me that it takes a Ph. D. to tell 

 you the percentage of walrus recovered. All you have to do is ask the 

 "Natives. You do it with deer and elk and other species. 

 We are going to have to get some controls of this. 

 What is the simplest program for finding out what the retrieval 

 of walrus is and the wastage ? 

 What is a simple program ? 



Mr. Hansen. Perhaps the most simple, direct method would be to 

 have people that we could send out, live with the natives, and observe. 

 Mr. DiNGELL. What about simply appointing a few natives to do 

 this kind of chore for you ? You could do that fairly cheaply. 



Mr. Hansen. Yes, except it would probably be somewhat akin to 

 asking the fox to guard the henhouse. 



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