Walrus hunt won't suffer from prying eyes

[cleofus1]

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/6943898p-6843075c.html


A pair of Web cameras providing Internet images of walruses basking on Round Island will be shut off this week at the request of Alaska Native leaders, who do not want viewers to see the animals shot and butchered during the traditional fall hunt.

The cameras transmit to a popular Web site where viewers normally can watch live video of Pacific walruses snoozing on a rocky beach. The site has tallied tens of thousands of hits since it went online more than a month ago, and viewer overload often caused it to crash.

But Alaska Natives fear widespread viewing of Internet images of walruses being killed with rifles on the half-mile beach could threaten the traditional subsistence hunt.

"They're certainly concerned about anything that could turn that around again and make it so they couldn't hunt out there anymore," state biologist Joe Meehan said."