Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/552518
ByRachelD'oro The Associated Press ANCHORAGE, ALASKA AnnaOxereokgrewupeat- ing walrus in the western Alaska village of Wales. To- day it's such a rare treat she can't bring herself to part with the plastic gallon bag of meat in her freezer. "I have to save it for some- thing special," she says. Her brother caught two animals this spring and shared the meat and fat, but it didn't go very far in the village of 150. She's thank- ful for what she got, though. It's become increasingly dif- ficult to land a walrus. Other remote communi- ties at the edge of the Ber- ing Sea also are seeing a steep decline in walrus harvested the past several years. Walrus, described by some as having a taste between veal and beef, is highly prized by Alaska Na- tives as a subsistence food to store for winter, with the adult male animals averag- ing 2,700 pounds. The sale of carved ivory from the tusks, legal only for Alaska Natives, also brings in sup- plemental income to com- munities with high unem- ployment rates. Hunters and scientists say walrus migration pat- terns are veering from his- torical hunting grounds as temperatures warm and the ocean ice used by the ani- mals to dive and rest re- cedes farther north. Vil- lage elders also tell biolo- gists the wind is blowing in new directions. In 2013, a late-season icepack clus- tered around St. Lawrence Island, blocking hunters from the sea. "I think one of the big- gest issues is that things have gotten so variable. It's hard to really predict what's going to happen," said Jim MacCracken, Alaska walrus program supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser- vice. Iver Campbell and other Yup'ik Eskimo hunters from two St. Lawrence Island communities harvested more than 1,100 walrus in 2003. But a decade later, hunters managed to take only 555 — a fraction of the ideal of one walrus per res- ident, per year. Things still aren't looking any better for the 1,430 residents of the villages of Gambell and Savoonga. The recent spring take was 233 walrus, ac- cording to preliminary Fish and Wildlife figures. The shore ice once served to block the wind for hunt- ers but that's no longer the case, said Campbell, who's lived all 64 years in Gam- bell, population 713. "The ice goes out real fast, melts real fast," he said. "We don't have any- thing to counter the wind and the rough water." Science backs that obser- vation. According to the Of- fice of Naval Research, the past eight years have had the eight lowest amounts of summer sea ice on record. In these communities, a subsistence lifestyle is a necessity. In fact, the low harvest this year recently prompted a donation of 10,000 pounds of frozen hal- ibut to four affected villages. "A decline in the subsis- tence harvest really cre- ates an economic disaster that threatens the health and welfare of the people in the communities," said Vera Metcalf, director of the Eskimo Walrus Com- mission. "So we are con- cerned about the impacts of climate change and the ability for our hunters to harvest marine mammals." Some Native communi- ties can search for other animals, like domestic rein- deer or caribou. But oppor- tunities aren't as bountiful for Diomede on the western coast of Little Diomede Is- land, only a few miles from Russia. The community of 120 harvested one walrus in 2014, prompting city and Native leaders to seek assis- tance from the state. This year, 10 walrus were harvested, according to Di- omede hunter Robert So- olook. There's no short- age of walrus, he said, but they're migrating sooner. No one has initiated any long-range planning to ad- dress the shift, but Soolook believes hunters eventually will need to change their practices, even going out earlier. CLIMATE CHANGE Warming leaves Alaskans with fewer walrus to hunt JOELGARLICH-MILLER—U.S.FISHANDWILDLIFESERVICE Two walrus cows lounge on ice off the west coast of Alaska. By Kaori Hitomi and Mari Yamaguchi The Associated Press HIROSHIMA, JAPAN Japan marked the 70th anniver- sary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Thursday, with Mayor Kazumi Mat- sui renewing calls for U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders to step up efforts toward mak- ing a nuclear-weapons-free world. Tens of thousands of peo- ple stood for a minute of si- lence at 8:15 a.m. at a cere- mony in Hiroshima's peace park near the epicenter of the 1945 attack, marking the moment of the blast. Then dozens of doves were re- leased as a symbol of peace. The U.S. bomb, "Lit- tle Boy," the first nuclear weapon used in war, killed 140,000 people. A second bomb, "Fat Man," dropped over Nagasaki three days later, killed another 70,000, prompting Japan's surren- der in World War II. The U.S. dropped the bombs to avoid what would have been a bloody ground assault on the Jap- anese mainland, following the fierce battle for Japan's southernmost Okinawan islands, which took 12,520 American lives and an es- timated 200,000 Japanese, about half civilians. Matsui called nuclear weapons "the absolute evil and ultimate inhumanity" that must be abolished, and criticized nuclear powers for keeping them as threats to achieve their national in- terests. He said the world till bristles with more than 15,000 nuclear weapons. He renewed an invitation to world leaders to visit Hi- roshima and Nagasaki to see the scars themselves, during the G-7 summit in Japan next year. "President Obama and other policymakers, please come to the A-bombed cit- ies, hear the hibakusha (surviving victims) with your own ears, and encoun- ter the reality of the atomic bombings," he said. "Surely, you will be impelled to start discussing a legal frame- work, including a nuclear weapons convention." The anniversary comes as Japan is divided over Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to pass unpop- ular legislation to expand the country's military role internationally, a year af- ter his Cabinet's decision to loosen Japan's war-re- nouncing constitution by adopting a new interpreta- tion of it. With the average age of survivors now exceeding 80 for the first time this year, passing on their stories is considered an urgent task. There were 5,359 hibakusha who died over the past year, bringing the total death toll from the Hiroshima bomb- ing to 297,684. WORLD WAR II Ja pa n pa us es to m ar k 70 th a nni ve rs ar y of H ir os hi ma a to mi c bo mb in g KOJI UEDA — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Visitors pray for the atomic bomb victims at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima western Japan on Thursday. Delivery these days all school year, or Delivery start date _________________ Delivery stop date _________________ CLASSROOM NEWSPAPER ORDER FORM Newsforaday...Learningforalifetime! NEWSPAPERS ARE PROVIDED AT NO CHARGE* Number of copies per delivery(minimum10) Circle the days below on which you would like the newspaper delivered: Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Select as many days as you would like. Pleasesendalistofanynondeliverydates along with this order form. Teacher's name School School address City Zip code Phone Number Ext. Fax Number Best time to call Fax this completed form to (530) 527-5774 or e-mail circ@redbluffdail ynews.com Please call (530)737-5047 if you have any questions Thank you for helping us develop future readers! Youcouldwinagiftcertificate at for school supplies worth up to $200.00 Attention Tehama County Teachers Three Gift Certificates: One for $200, one for $100 and one for $50 will be selected at random from eligible NIE requests received by 5 PM, Monday, AUG 31. Winners will be notified in early September. To be eligible to be included in the drawing, you must sign up to receive papers for your full classroom, for a minimum of two days per week, for a minimum of 8 weeks. However,youmayrequestupto4daysperweek(TUE-FRI) for as many weeks as you like! For further information, just call (530) 737-5047 Or, simply complete the attached form and submit per the instructions. Just for signing up to receive FREE copies of The Daily News, delivered to your classroom, for use as teaching aids for your students. (Paid for by donations from local businesses.) This program is called Newspapers in Education, or NIE. Have a great school year! CLASSROOM NEWSPAPER ORDER FORM News for a day...Learning for a lifetime! FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2015 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 5 B