Sustaining a Healthy Human–walrus Relationship in a Dynamic Environment: Challenges for Comanagement

Abstract

Native communities in the Bering and Chukchi seas have long relied on walrus for a multitude of nutritional, social, and cultural needs. Impacts to walrus in the past have resulted in profound consequences to these communities. For example, on St. Lawrence Island during the 1878-1880 "Great Famine" as many as 2000 people (> 90% of the island's population) starved after the walrus herds were decimated by Yankee whalers. Loss of walrus was further confounded by a wave of fatal contagion and difficult hunting conditions attributable to short-term climatic changes. Today, the ability of coastal hunters to access, harvest, transport, store, and utilize walrus is still affected by a dynamic suite of endogenous and exogenous factors, including ecological, social, economic, and political conditions. Impacts specifically as a result of changing climate will affect Native Alaskan hunters within the context of these diverse and sometimes global factors. The Eskimo Walrus Commission (EWC) works within a comanagement agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to address these challenges. However, the EWC's goals may differ from the USFWS within the current comanagement and policy context. Whereas the USFWS is primarily interested in walrus population health (assessed through estimates of population size and native harvest), EWC is primarily interested in a broader scope, encompassing the health of the human-walrus relationship. New scientific tools associated with the study and management of linked human-ecological systems may provide a framework within which to address these goals. Here we present an overview of the challenges, needs, and research relating to climate change that are of interest to the EWC and in particular, the sustained health of the human-walrus relationship.

Arctic Marine Mammals and Climate Change: Impacts and Resilience

“…Nevertheless, the projected course and rate of current climate change (Walsh 2008) may present new challenges to the wellbeing and survival of Arctic marine mammals. These challenges can be considered in four general categories: habitat modification (Laidre et al 2008), ecosystem alteration (Bluhm and Gradinger 2008), stresses to body condition and health (Burek et al 2008), and human interactions (Hovelsrud et al 2008, Metcalf andRobards 2008). Change in sea ice is the common denominator to all these potential impacts, as direct loss of this habitat is the most prominent threat that Arctic species face.…”

“…Similarly, examination of dietary variability and individual animal health by way of isotopic, fatty acid, and contaminant analyses (e.g., Burek et al 2008) can provide a wealth of information about marine ecosystem trophic pathways. Human subsistence communities provide a strong link here, in that, as consumers of marine mammals, they are the first-line investigators of this system (Harwood et al 2000, Metcalf and Robards 2008. A coordinated research response to climate change could more effectively use Arctic marine mammals as sentinels for the ecosystem.…”

“…These temporal and spatial scales are small compared with evolutionary and geologic scales, but vast compared with human research and resource management scales (Moore 2005). For example, local knowledge (also called traditional ecological knowledge or TEK) can provide clear observational records over relatively long temporal scales (Huntington et al 1999, Huntington 2000, Metcalf and Robards 2008; these observations generally cover only a portion of the range of a marine mammal stock or species (Huntington et al 2004a, b). Conversely, scientific research and monitoring can have greater spatial scope, but consistent long-term sampling is much harder to achieve (e.g., Murray 2008).…”

“…We conclude with suggestions for how these regional resilience scenarios might provide a framework for further study of marine mammals in an era of climate change. Other papers in this Special Issue address the implications of impacts and resilience for human users of marine mammals (Hovelsrud et al 2008, Metcalf andRobards 2008) and for conservation (Ragen et al 2008). We therefore limit our discussion to the implications for research and monitoring.…”

Divergent movements of walrus and sea ice in the northern Bering Sea

“…The species is a vital subsistence resource to coastal communities in Alaska and Russia (Metcalf & Robards 2008) and can substantially affect the structure of benthic communities (Oliver et al 1983, Oliver et al 1985, Nelson et al 1994, Born et al 2003, Ray et al 2006. Sea ice is used by walruses as a platform for giving birth, nursing young, molting, resting between feeding forays, accessing offshore foraging areas, and avoiding nearshore predation and disturbance (Fay 1982).…”