Just back from a visit to Round Island of the Alaska Walrus Sanctuary in Bristol Bay.

For a place with awful weather we were treated to clear skies and low seas. Which turns out to be important for Walrus viewing as they don't like to be pounded by the waves and head out to sea when the water is rough. The campers that stayed before us had to deal with wind and rain and were not rewarded with walrus until we showed up with the good weather.

I liked this show for the bursting bubble from the walrus blow. I've got a lot of photos to go thru so I suspect there will be more showing up on my site.

During our stay around 3000 walrus were on the side of the island that's counted.

Tags:   Pacific Walrus Round Island Alaska

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Walrus that have been at sea come back very white as their blood flow has been restricted to their extermities to keep their body core warm. Once they've spent some time ashore, they'll gain some color. Also older walrus tend to be much lighter in color.

Tags:   Pacific Walrus Round Island Alaska

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Walrus have to be the biggest scardy cats of the ocean. They are very concerned when coming onshore. The scantuary was established to keep all air and boat traffic away from the island since 1960 as traffic was causing the walrus to avoid the haul outs in Bristol Bay. I think this guy might hear my camera, as it seems as if he's looking for me even though I'm in a good hiding place.

Tags:   Pacific Walrus Round Island Alaska

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One of the surprises to me was to discover the tale I've been told since I was young was untrue. The walrus do not dig for clams with their tusks, they are used primarily to pull themselves up onto the ice in winter and in fights during mating season. For clams, they can create a suction of over one atmosphere (so they can drink from a straw that's 33 feet tall), they feel the clams with their wiskers, then pick up the clam with their lips, then they suck the clam directly from it's shell, so the shells never get past their lips. We saw in a book on the island that they've found on average about 40 pounds of clam meat in their stomachs, so I can only guess there are a great deal of clams in Bristol Bay!

Tags:   Pacific Walrus Round Island Alaska

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From our anchorage in boat cove on Round Island, Flat Rock, a favored haul out is in front of the spine of the island. From all the spots you can see it is a very active nesting location for sea birds, mostly black legged kittiwakes and common murres.

I'd have prefered a blue sky, but for this location it doesn't get much better.

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