The State of Circumpolar Walrus Populations

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organizations (Shadbolt et al. 2014). A conservation plan for walruses in Alaska was developed in
1994 to ensure that they remain a sustained resource for coastal Native inhabitants of the region
(USFWS 1994; Shadbolt et al. 2014).
Prior to the MMPA (1960 to 1972), state regulations imposed a harvest limit of five female
walruses per subsistence hunter per year, with no limit on the number of males (USFWS 1994).
The MMPA provides for more liberal regulations, and qualified Alaskan Natives are permitted to
take walruses at any time of the year for subsistence or craft purposes, without restrictions on sex,
age, and number of walrus, provided the harvest is not wasteful and the population is not
considered to be depleted (USFWS 1994; Shadbolt et al. 2014).
The US government is required to manage the walrus population within optimum sustainable
population (OSP) levels (USFWS 1994), which is defined by the MMPA to be “the number of
animals which will result in the maximum productivity of the population or the species, keeping
in mind the carrying capacity of the habitat and the health of the ecosystem of which they form a
constituent element”. Under the MMPA, the Native harvest cannot be restricted if the population
is above the level where net productivity is maximized and the harvest is non-wasteful (USFWS
1994; Shadbolt et al. 2014). If the population is considered depleted (i.e., the population falls
below its OSP), then actions can be taken to regulate the harvest (USFWS 1994; see Shadbolt et al.
2014 for additional details).
At present there are no federally imposed quotas under the MMPA to regulate walrus harvest
limits, but some local management programs have been developed (Garlich-Miller et al. 2011).
The communities of Gambell and Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island have formed Marine Mammal
Advisory Committees to implement local regulations that limit the number of adult/sub-adult
walruses that can be killed per hunting trip. Another example is the harvesting rules set up in the
Walrus Island-State Game Sanctuary (Garlich-Miller et al. 2011) (also see below re: Habitat
Protection).
The USFWS administers two programs to monitor walrus hunting activities: the Marking Tagging
and Reporting Program (MTRP) and the Walrus Harvest Monitoring Program (WHMP) (Garlich-
Miller and Burn 1999; Shadbolt et a. 2014). The MTRP is a Federally mandated, year-round
program that requires hunters to present walrus tusks to USFWS representatives for tagging
(Garlich-Miller and Burn 1999). The ADF&G conducted a harvest monitoring program in the
1960s and 70s, which was taken over by the USFWS in 1980 (MMC 2003). The WHMP is a comanagement
effort between the EWC and the USFWS, which was initially run in four
communities and currently operates in two (Garlich-Miller and Burn 1999; Shadbolt et al. 2014).
Village residents work under contract to USFWS to collect walrus harvest data from hunters after