Walrus at Cape Peirce

At Cape Peirce there is one of the few walrus haul-outs in Alaska. This is when the male herds come ashore in their thousands to rest. The sight of so many walrus on one beach is amazing, and so is the smell! Hint: do NOT stand downwind! The beach that the walrus are hauled out on is known as Maggy Beach (short for maggots!).

The Walrus rest for a few days and then leave. Unfortunately when these large haul-outs occur sometimes one or two of the old bulls die. To make sure that the walrus are not disturbed at a later date by tusk collectors we had to remove to tusks (the smell when doing this is totally overpowering and lingers in your nostrils for days!). Walrus are very skittish and if disturbed when resting they may stampede which could cause many deaths. The tusks are then sold and the proceeds go to upkeep of the reserve.

The pair of tusks in the foreground are the tusks that came off the walrus in the above picture. These tusks have been extensively cleaned (by man and maggot) but still require a lot of work to get the remaining flesh (and smell) out of them! Hint: leaving them in a bucket of bleach for a few hours is very effective!