Abstract
Until recently Atlantic walruses (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) have been subject to relatively intense exploitation in West Greenland. Animals in this stock have also been hunted in Nunavut/Canada. However, the demographic identity of these animals and their connection with walruses in neighbouring areas is poorly resolved, hampering the determination of sustainable harvest levels. It has been suggested that walruses in West Greenland are genetically linked with walruses at SE Baffin Island (Canada) where they are also hunted for subsistence purposes. To determine the relationship(s) between walruses in these areas we conducted a genetic analysis including recent samples from West Greenland, Southeast Baffin Island in western Davis Strait, Hudson Strait in Canada and Northwest Greenland in northern Baffin Bay. Seventeen microsatellite markers were applied to all samples. Walruses in West Greenland and at Southeast Baffin Island did not differ from each other and therefore may be regarded as belonging to the same stock. However, walruses in these two areas differed genetically from both Northwest Greenland and Hudson Strait walruses. These findings support (1) that there are subunits within the range of walruses in the Hudson Strait-Davis Strait-Baffin Bay region and (2) that walruses along E Baffin Island and W Greenland constitute a common population that receive some influx from Hudson Strait. Thus, sustainable catch levels in Southeast Baffin Island (Nunavut) and in West Greenland must be set in light of the finding that they belong to the same stock, which is exploited in these two areas. This requires Canadian-Greenlandic co-management of the W Greenland-SE Baffin Island walrus stock.
Highlights
Walruses (Odobenus rosmarus) have been exploited by hunting cultures in the Arctic for millennia (Schledermann 1996)
The results indicated sex differences in samples taken by only one method and a lack of differences among samples taken by two methods
The unintended re-sampling of individuals at various locations in the Southeast Baffin Island (SEB) sampling area suggests that walruses moved among haulouts and the sample was representative of the Hoare Bay area
Summary
Walruses (Odobenus rosmarus) have been exploited by hunting cultures in the Arctic for millennia (Schledermann 1996). Arctic Inuit in many areas where walruses occur have regularly depended on their meat for human consumption and dog food, their ivory for making hunting implements and, in earlier times, their blubber for oil for heat and light (Born et al 1995). Several life history traits make the walrus an important resource to marine hunting cultures in areas where this species occurs. NAMMCO Scientific Publications, Volume 9 such as restricted areas of open water surrounded by ice (polynyas) in winter and hauled out on land in summer. Fay 1982, Born et al 1995) These traits, coupled with relatively low reproductive rates and long generation times (Witting and Born 2005 and references therein) make them vulnerable to overexploitation
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