222 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 74 



Table 36. Hunter success in relation to location of walruses.^ 







Animals retrieved 



— Shots fired per 











Location 



No. shot 



No. 



Percent 



animal retrieved 



On ice 



62 



37 



60 



5.7 



In water 



44 



20 



46 



11. 1 



Total or average 



106 



57 



54 



7.5 



aProm observations by F. H. Fay and A. Thayer (unpublished data) at Gambell and Sa- 

 voonga, St. Lawrence Island. 



From the early 1900's to the mid-1950's, the Alaskan retrieved harvest is 

 believed to have ranged from about 1,000 to 1,500 walruses per year (Collins 

 1940; Brooks 1954; Fay 1957 and unpublished data). These estimates were based 

 on rather fragmentary information, for there was no regular monitoring of the 

 harvests during that time. Soviet retrieved harvests in the first 30 years of this 

 century probably also were about 1,500 per year (Nechiporenko 1927), but this 

 was increased in the 1930's by development of a commercial walrus "fishery" 

 from ships. From 1931 to 1956, the Soviet retrieved harvest ranged from 2,725 to 

 8,264 (mean, 4,785) walruses per year (Krylov 1968). Apparently, the sexes were 

 about equally represented in Soviet harvests during that time (Freiman 1941); 

 probably more females than males were taken in the Alaskan harvest (Burns 

 1965). In both, the retrieved harvests were estimated to have made up 50 to 70 % 

 of the animals actually killed; the remainder (30 to 50%) was lost due to sinking 

 and wounding (Zenkovich 1938a; Buckley 1958; Krylov 1968). Hence, tlie 

 average annual kill of walruses by man from about 1900 to 1930 probably was 

 about 5,000 animals per year, whereas from 1930 to the mid-1950's, it was 

 doubled to about 10,000 per year. This increase apparently led to depression of 

 the Pacific walrus population. Soviet reports have indicated that, of numerous 

 coastal hauling grounds that were used on the Siberian coast in the early part of 

 the century, only three remained in use by the mid-1950's (Sdobnikov 1956 in 

 Kleinenberg 1957; Geller 1957); similar signs of decline were noted in Alaska by 

 Fay (1957). 



Perceiving that the population had declined to a dangerously low level, the 

 Soviet Union enacted legislation to end commercial harvests of walruses in the 

 Bering-Chukchi region, beginning in 1957 (Krylov 19C8; Kosygin 1975a); in the 

 United States this was done 16 years earlier, in 1941 (Brooks 1953; Fay 1957). 

 From 1957 to 1965, the Soviet retrieved harvests declined steadily from about 

 4,000 to less than 900 per year, and Alaskan harvests fluctuated between 975 and 

 2,300 per year (Table 37). In both areas, killing of females and calves was greatly 

 restricted during this time, and the sanctity of the principal coastal hauling 

 grounds was affirmed by protective measures. The overall kill (retrieved harvest 

 plus losses) was reduced to less than half of its former level, and the sex ratio of 

 adults in the kill was shifted from about 1 female: 1 male to 1 female:3 males. 

 The Alaskan harvests were mainly of adults (Fig. 127). The age composition of 

 the Soviet harvests in that period was very similar (Krylov 1965fl; Fedoseev and 

 Gol'tsev 1969). 



Since 1965, the combined Soviet and American kill (harvest plus losses) of 



