PREFACE 
Although there have been no exhaustive studies of the Pacific 
walrus, there has been considerable work on this species during the 
1950's. Studies werg initiated independently in 1952 by Francis H. Fay 
and James W. Brooks. Brooks' work, centering around Bering Strait but 
with some observations near Barrow, Alaska, was made available as Special 
Report Number 1 of the Alaska Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit in 1954. 
Fay's research was conducted largely at Gambell on St. Lawrence Island, 
and was presented as a Ph.D. thesis to the University of British Columbia 
in 1955. Each author has published short sections of the above works in 
the Transactions of the North American Wildlife Conference. 
1 
These two complementary studies served to point up the serious 
plight of the Pacific walrus, the waste involved in walrus harvest by the 
Alaskan aboriginals, and the glaring gaps in our knowledge of this 
species; they also stimulated the initiation, in the spring of 1958, of 
cooperative studies largely through the efforts of Clarence J. Rhode, 
Regional Director of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife for Alaska. 
With finances provided by the Alaska Region, two teams, each consisting of 
a biologist and an enforcement agent, were assigned to St. Lawrence Island 
and Little Diomede Island during the walrus hunting season in May and June. 
In addition, exploratory flights to determine the feasibility of aerial 
surveys of the population were conducted in the Bering Sea, and later 
three biologists were sent to the Walrus Islands for several days. The 
services of Dr. Francis H. Fay were kindly made available by the Arctic 
Health Research Center of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and 
Welfare. He and Mr. Averill Thayer, U. S. Game Management Agent of the 
Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, were on St. Lawrence Island. Mr. 
Karl W. Kenyon, Biologist, and Mr. Stanley S. Fredericksen, U. S. Game 
Management Agent, both of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, were 
the crew on Little Diomede Island. Dr. Fay and Mr. Kenyon were joined 
during their study on the Walrus Islands by Mr. James W. Brooks of the 
Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The aerial surveys were conducted by 
Dr. John L. Buckley, Biologist, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. 
Most of the information presented in the following pages is 
derived from the two major reports by Brooks and Fay, and from the 1958 
studies. 
1/ Dr. Fay's studies were financed largely by the Arctic Institute of 
North America. 
2/ Mr. Brooks’ studies were financed largely by the American Museum of 
Natural History, The Wildlife Management Institute, American Committee 
for International Wild Life Protection, and the Alaska Cooperative 
Wildlife Research Unit. 
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