CHUKOTKA 67°50’22.6”N 175°52’01.5”W
“It was really important to me that this suffering is not in vain. It is a bitter pill for us to swallow – the consequences of our collective actions, but swallow it we must.”
Anatoly has been studying the historical context of walrus haul-out sites along the Russian coast for 45 years. His research shows that as the summer sea ice retreats farther and farther north each decade, walrus are relying on land haul-out sites more and more. The physical condition of the walrus, especially mothers and calves, is also deteriorating, most likely because of the stress they’re under to find food and then swim for hundreds of kilometres to rest, rather than use the sea ice as their sanctuary. The true scale of what we found ourselves in the middle of could only be realised once we got the drone in the air. We couldn’t believe our eyes. There were walrus as far as the eye could see, spread across every available centimetre of beach for two kilometres. Anatoly’s analysis of the images revealed it was even bigger than previous events he had witnessed. He estimated over 110,000 walrus came ashore that day. To put it in context, that’s approximately three quarters of the world’s population of Pacific walrus in one place. Nothing like this had ever been witnessed before. It was an important moment in time to document. No one had ever filmed this before. I doubt more than a handful of people even knew it was happening. Being able to bring this story to a global audience was a heartening end to my journey. It’s important to me that this suffering is not in vain. The consequences of our collective actions is a bitter pill for us to swallow, but swallow it we must. We need to acknowledge and understand the global impact we’re having and try to do something about it before it’s too late. The Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on the planet, and these mass gatherings of walrus are now happening almost every year. The lives of walrus, like those of bears and seals, are changing. All are living at the frontier of climate change and all are suffering as a consequence. For now, the Arctic winter returns and the sea ice reforms. Order is restored. Relief is provided for the many creatures that depend on the ice, but for how much longer will their frozen worlds be a part of life on our planet?
32
MOTHER VOLUME THREE
Made with FlippingBook. PDF to flipbook with ease