Translation 2783

• 65
1955 the experimental shooting ceased, on account of the low numbers
of walrlises in that area. •
Studios of the status of walrus stocks made in 1952-55 in the
northern part of the Barents Sea and in the Laptev Sea revealed low
walrus numbers, &specially in the regions of the northern tip of
Novaya Zemlya and the Franz-Josef Land archipelago. In these two
regions, according to 1955 data, the number of walruses was estimated
at approximately 2,000-2,500, and the number in the whole • of the
Laptev Sea was estimated at 6,000-7,000. P‘ccordin ;:; to incomplete
1955 data, about 3,000 walruses lived in the northern part of Hudson
Bay alone, but the total number of -the • animals evidently somewhat
exceeded that figure, since the annual limit of take by the local
population was 1,600. No information is available reu;arding the
numbers of walruses in the waters of East and West Greenland, but
the annual kill by the Eskimo-population is 500-600. '
The sharp decrease in the stocks of Atlantic•walruses in all
parts of their range has necessitated the - taking- of positive measures
to restore their numbers. WaIrus-hunting has been prohibited Since
1949'in the waters of the western sector of the Soviet Arctic (the
Barents and «Kara Seas). .1n 1956 the decree of the Council of ilinisters
of the IISPSR "Feasures for Conservation of Arctic Animals"
prohibited -the use of ships for killing walruses everywherei . permission
was granted only to the local national population of the ilorth
to take - the animals within certain fixed limits, and to 1,rctic expeditions
to tnke them under licence'. Complete prohibition of ship-based
walrus-hunting ha s been adopted by Norway. In the Canadian Arctic
the first mea.:ures to regulate walrus-huntip;; wer-introduced in
1931, when the export of tusks and hides from the , localities where
the animals were killad was prohibited, and licences for taing walruses
were restricted to t•e Eskimo population ana to•winter residents
in the Arctic; in 1949 tne measures for walrus conservation were made
more precise ana :..ositive with respect to fixin; - of kill limits and
ensuring complete utilization of the animal.) taizan.