Atlantic Walrus | Online Record Book Preview

Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus

Morsa del Atlántico (Sp), Atlantisches Walross (G), Morse Atlantique (F).

DESCRIPTION (male) Head and body length 9-11 feet (2.7 to 3.4 m). Weight 1,800-2,000 pounds (800-900 kg). Females are about two-thirds the size of males, with slimmer tusks that are only 60 percent as long.

Smaller than the Pacific walrus, with considerably smaller tusks that can attain a maximum length of about 30 inches (76 cm). The snout of the male is not as square as in the Pacific walrus and the chin is more receding. The nostrils of the Atlantic walrus are visible when viewed from the front, while those of the Pacific walrus are not.

DISTRIBUTION Hudson Bay, and the waters around Baffin Island and to the east of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, specifically Foxe Basin, Hudson Strait, Baffin Bay and Davis Strait. Also along the coasts of Greenland.

Outside North America, Atlantic walrus are found in European waters from Svalbard eastward through the Barents Sea to Novaya Zemlya, and in Asia from the Kara Sea eastward through the Laptev Sea to the East Siberian Sea.

REMARKS Although native Inuits in Canada and Greenland have always hunted Atlantic walrus for subsistence, there has been little or no opportunity for sport hunting. But this has recently changed. Inuit communities in Canada are now allowed to sell walrus permits from their quota to sportsmen, and to guide them on hunts. Unfortunately for American sportsmen, they may not be imported in the U.S. because the USF&WS will not issue import permits.