Translation 2783

.63
greatest losses from polar bears, which mostly attack pups and juve.
niles. .•nother serious enemy is the killer whale, which pursues-walruses
during their migrations, especially in the Lorth Atlantic.
Some diseases have been found.in welruses, such as tumou14.
in the-uterus and atrophy of the lungs. Approximately 16 species of
helminths parasitize the internal organs, one of which (ftichinella)
is particularly dangerous to man.
The stocks of walruses, which were formerly abundant, have
been seriously depleted during a relatively-short period of tinte, and
in several regions have been completely annihilated. ihe.greatest
reductions have been suffered by the•Atlantic.walrus populations in
the waters of the Canadian Arctio, Greenland, „:pitzbergen, and Uovaya
Zemlya.
' After the extirpation of walrus stocks in the toastal zone
their pursuit was extended into the open and more northerly parts of
the Barents Sea. By the second half of the 17th century ship-based
walrus-hunting had begun to develop vigorously, and Uorwegian ships
visited Lovaya Zemlya, the Kara Sea, Spitzbergen, and Medvezhii Island
to take walruses. Russian ships also made voyages into these regions..
At the end of the 18th century ships in the :iJarcnts Sca were taking
up to 100 walruses annually, and in 1799, according to incomplete
statistics, more than 230 small ships sailed te :Jpitzberc.;en and ..,evaya
Zemlya, taking more than 2,000 walruses.
Walrus-hunting in the Larents Sea continued to be intensive
in the first part of the 19th century, especially in the Spitzbergen
and hedvezhii Island regions. From 1821 to 1830 73 Lorwegian ships
hunted walruses in these re,:;ions; in 1831-54 there were from 16 to
20 ships, which took . from 900 to 1,800 of the animals. annually. At
the beginnini,,7 of the 1860's 1 ..orweiax . ships be(.,an vigorous 'walrushunting
around Lovaya Zemlya and on the drift-ice in the Kara .:;ea.
During the. period 1675-83 from 30 to 40 isorwugian ships operated in
that'area every year, killing from n few huLdred up to 1,500 . wlruses.
Yhese crans weru also visited by some RussLIn snrain- vessels, but
their total antual take of walruses did no 1; ck(cuLd 100-200.
At thu end of the 19tn and the bei:inninà of tne 20th cukturic , o
a considerable decrease was recorded in thu nu:abers of willruhus Laken
or the narenta'Sua cilS in wehturn part of