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Mr. DINGELL. That is common in government today. I have known about that for years.

I am going to ask you to give us, if you please, the outlines of the program that will give us some intelligent idea of what the wastage of this species is.

I want the outlines of an intelligent administrative program for that, and I want you to tell us if you have not got the authority necessary to do it, if you need legislative authority, or if you need an amendment to H.R. 10420 to accomplish that.

And I direct you at this point to submit a mandatory language to derive the specific authority to manage the natives' taking of the walrus, if need be, to hold this wastage down.

I have no objection to letting them take it, and if they are going out with snowmobiles and high-powered rifles, you had better do some modern management to see that this wasting of the walrus is stopped. You submit appropriate suggestions to this committee for administrative action to reduce this waste, and also to specifically request any amendatory language to H.R. 10420.

(The information to be supplied follows:)

RECOMMENDATION OF TAKING OF WALRUSES AND POLAR BEARS

Walruses are principally harvested on the pack-ice on the high seas, outside of territorial waters of the State of Alaska.

If H.R. 690 is amended as recommended to give the Secretary of the Interior authority to regulate the taking of walruses and polar bears on the high seas, no additional legislation will be required.

Mr. POTTER. You said it might not be appropriate to have a moratorium for adequate management of walrus and sea otter.

What evidence do you have to support that?

Dr. LINDUSKA. As Mr. Hansen pointed out, the walrus is satisfying a genuine need among the native tribes.

As far as the otters are concerned, the prospects of arriving at a point of overpopulation during a period of moratorium, and with it accompanying die off would not be the most desirable way of handling things.

Mr. POTTER. Do you have any evidence to indicate the walrus are anywhere close to the point that they would suffer problems of overpopulation?

Dr. LINDUSKA. The question there is not so much overpopulation as it is the hardship it would offer natives during a time when we know them to be of satisfactory numbers.

Mr. POTTER. What do you consider satisfactory?

Dr. LINDUSKA. Well, just the observation that their populations are being fairly well sustained.

For an absolute nose count, I could not provide that.

Mr. POTTER. Is there, in fact, any scientific evidence to indicate how many walrus there are?

Dr. LINDUSKA. I am sure that there have been some studies made. Mr. Hansen, are you acquainted with that?

Mr. HANSEN. Several years ago, there was an aerial survey made over the icepack.

The walrus were in the Bering Sea before the ice had retreated up around the Arctic.

As I recall a figure at that time, something between 150,000 and 120,000 walrus were sighted.

Now, how much of the total population this would have represented, I am not sure. I am not sure how complete and accurate the

survey was. Mr. DINGELL. Well, as a matter of fact, I am going to ask you to please, Mr. Hansen, give us the information as to population levels, age groups of the different species marine mammals, and also the age groups taken. And I will direct at this time, in order to save the time of the committee, that Mr. Potter, our counsel, be in communication with you in regard to the information we need in these particular areas. I will ask you also to submit to us information as to this particular study to which you are alluding.

I do not think you want to sit there and tell me this was an adequate study as to the population levels of the walrus, the condition of the herd.

It is not a comparison with regard to the ancestral population of walrus and what they were, nor does it give us a breakdown as to the age groups or aging, of the future prognosis of walrus population.

Mr. HANSEN. I am the first to admit, as I have, that we desperately need information in this area.

Mr. DINGELL. I want to tell you that I am impressed to know that you folks are coming in here and supporting the legislation we have before us with regard to survey of population of walrus and polar

bears.

I have, for years, been trying to get legislation through, and Interior has always said we have plenty of authority and do not need it. I said if you have plenty of authority and do not need it, why are you not doing it. I never got an answer to that particular point.

I do not think you have an adequate survey of populations of any species of these marine mammals, whether you are talking about polar bears, any of the fields of the walrus, or any of the other species now, do you?

Dr. LINDUSKA. I would be inclined to take exception to that, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. DINGELL. You do not have it on the walrus.

Dr. LINDUSKA. The walrus may be a possible exception. But I feel very confident as far as the fur seal and sea otter are concerned we are on safe ground.

Mr. DINGELL. That is two species.

Can you name any other species on which you have adequate information?

Dr. LINDUSKA. That is the extent of my unqualified statement. Mr. DINGELL. And, as a matter of fact, there are some problems with regard to the fur seal. The number has actually declined significantly in recent years.

Dr. LINDUSKA. In terms of a moratorium?

Mr. DINGELL. I am not talking moratorium. I am talking population levels and information with regard to population levels.

I am not indicating a moratorium. That is one of the questions before the committee.

The question I am getting to you is, do you have information with regard to the fact that the fur seal population has declined significantly during the last few years?

Dr. LINDUSKA. I would have to defer to Commerce on that.

Mr. DINGELL. It shows a few years ago they let them take pregnant females.

Dr. LINDUSKA. That harvest was to preclude a die-off that related to overpopulation on the breeding ground.

Mr. DINGELL. Well, I am going to recognize Mr. Potter again.

I want him to get some figures with regard to population, and I also want him to get some figures with regard to the age groups of population, like the polar bear which are being harvested. And I notice there is a striking decline in the age limit of the polar bears being harvested.

Mr. POTTER. To pursue this question of the age levels of the polar bears, have you seen any statistics coming from Alaska on this? Dr. LINDUSKA. I know they reveal a declining size and an age ratio running more to young animals.

Mr. POTTER. Indeed they do. The average age of males killed in 1966, the first year for which we have figures, was 8.1.

In 1969, the last year for which we have figures, it was 6.3. That is a bear with one and a half breeding seasons.

The average age of females declined from 1966 when it was 6.4 years old to 5.4 in 1969. That is one breeding season.

With permission of the Chair I would ask that this information be included in the record at this point.

Mr. DINGELL. Without objection, so ordered, and the Chair would request that Dr. Linduska and the Interior Department submit to us at their earliest convenience comments as to the accuracy of the figures and any suggestions or comments that you care to make with regard to these particular matters.

The Chair will direct the counsel to be in communication with our good friends in Interior so that they can have a full opportunity to make a satisfactory and adequate commentary on the matters alluded to.

(The information referred to follows:)

THE POLAR BEAR

Based upon degrees of longitude, less than 8 percent of the United States' territory fronts on the Polar Basin (Fig. 1), which is the home of the polar bear. The information presented in Fig. 1 also shows that this species is not known to den in Alaska (United States' territory). Polar bears nevertheless do occur regularly off Alaskan coasts. Those occurring off the Arctic coast seem to originate from dens located in the Western Canadian Arctic (Bank's Island); and those off the northwestern coast, abutting on the Chukchi Sea, from Soviet Siberia, notably Wrangel Island.

Statistics are available concerning the Alaskan polar bear harvest from 1961 to 1969. They show for harvest and sex ratio:

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Note: Table from Brooks and Lentfer, 1969. Polar Bear Research in Alaska, Paper No. 15, IUCN publ., new series.

Sport hunters are limited to one polar bear per permit, and the number of permits issued is limited to 300. Cubs, and sows with cubs cannot be taken. The open season extends from February 1 to April 30.

The Arctic-wide harvest for 1969 totaled 1,179 animals, of which in addition to the 298 shown in Table I for Alaska, 407 were taken in Canada, 128 in Greenland (Denmark), and 346 in Norway. The Soviet Union, which has no open season, but a few are taken from time to time for zoos and for scientific study. More younger bears are said to be taken presently than formerly. This view is based upon skull measurements and upon layering in the cementum of a premolar tooth. Table 2 (below) presents a summary of the data concerning skull size; and Table 3 (below) does the same for the estimation of average age based upon layering of the tooth cementum.

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FIGURE 1.-Distribution of polar bear core areas (important denning and cubbing places): (1) Northwestern Greenland, (2) Northeastern Greenland, (3) Eastern Svalbard, (4) Franz Josef Land, (5) Novaya Zemlya, (6) Severnaya Zemlya, (7) Taimyr Peninsula, (8) New Siberian Islands, (9) Bear Islands, (10) Wrangel Island, (11) Chukchi Peninsula, (12) Southern Banks Island, (13) Simpson Peninsula, (14) Eastern Southhampton Island, (15) Eastern Baffin Island, (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 11 are of secondary importance.) Dots indicate weather stations.

TABLE 2.-AVERAGE SKULL SIZE 1 IN INCHES OF POLAR BEARS TAKEN BY AIRPLANE HUNTERS BASED IN ALASKA,

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TABLE 3.-AVERAGE AGE BASED ON TOOTH CEMENTUM LAYERING OF POLAR BEARS IN HUNTER HARVEST, 1966-68

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The time span covered by the data in Tables 2 and 3 is probably of too short a duration to show any conclusive trend.

Concerning the matter of population, the real weakness continues to be the difficulty of making a reliable census of the total Arctic population, or any of its regional (national) segments.

THE WALRUS

The walrus of the north Pacific has responded well to the protection it has received since the turn of the present century. This population presently is considered an underexploited and increasing one. Closely comparable counts of this animal are difficult to make, since most of them "haul out" on ice floes. Sometimes the massing of the floes is such that great numbers of walrus are congregated in a relatively small area. At other times, these animals are widely dispersed. Added to this are the hundreds of square miles in which no animals are seen at all.

A Bureau biologist (Karl Kenyon) reported (by telephone) the results of four surveys made by himself and an associate. All the walruses seen in a 1mile strip (one-half mile from each side of the plane used) were counted as were also the individuals seen beyond. Their results follow:

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