Tuesday, June 27, 2006
This Can't Be Right
What you see in this picture is an aerial view of hundreds of walruses, crammed on a beach somewhere in the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge. The reason this caught my eye is that federal wildlife biologists have installed a 250 foot fence to keep these walruses from falling off the edge of a cliff to their deaths. The cliff is located, I believe, in the upper left of this photo and last year some 30 bull walrus fell off and died, with more than 150 going over the edge between 1994 and 1996.
The native population of Bristol Bay wanted the fence installed to prevent unnecessary deaths. They are keenly interested in the welfare of the estimated 200,000 Pacific walruses for good reason - they kill them for meat. Trying to fence in 3000 pound walruses so that they don't accidentally die so they can be killed on purpose - that was too good to let pass without comment!
