Webcam Walruses go offline
p2p news / p2pnet:- Wallowing and snorting as they jockey for position on the rocks, the 2-ton walruses aren’t the prettiest reality show stars, says the Associated Press.
But two cameras installed at the Walrus Islands State Game Sanctuary off Alaska’s southwest coast are giving scientists and Web surfers alike the chance to watch the mammals rest and play in their natural environment.
The $40,000 project is meant to ” educate and promote conservation,” state biologist Joe Meehan is quoted as saying. “Along with the walruses, the islands are home to sea lions and about a quarter of a million sea birds.”
That was in July but at this time of year, Alaskan native leaders do not want viewers to see the animals shot and butchered during a fall subsistence hunt, fearing widespread Internet images could threaten the tradition, says another AP story.
“They’re certainly concerned about anything that could turn that around again and make it so they couldn’t hunt out there anymore,” says Meehan.
The cameras were due to go offline today and when we went for a look at the Remote Camera Project at Round Island at 1:12 pm Pacific, all we saw was a big, white square because, “Repairs are being made to the cameras on the island today due to environment conditions, so no feed will be available,” says the site. “Please check again later.”
“When you go deer hunting you don’t want a camera shining on you,” the story has Helen Chythlook, executive director of the Bristol Bay Native Association’s Qayassiq Walrus Commission, saying.
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See:-
Associated Press – Pacific walruses the new darlings of the Internet, July 27, 2005
AP – Webcams Watching Walruses to Be Shut Off This Week, September 8, 2005
September 10th, 2005 at 2:05 am
SHOW US DAMN YOU!!! I WANNA SEE TEH WALRUSES GETTING KILLED!
or actually, I wanna see the public’s reaction when they see you killing them… aren’t they like endangered or something??
I dont care about tradition… there is absolutly NO reason in this day and age, to kill animals like that…
September 10th, 2005 at 6:28 am
If they’re not hunting those walruses in the traditional manner with traditional weapons, transport, clothing etc, they shouldn’t be doing it at all.
I think they’re only worried because ppl might say “hang on, since when did high powered hunting rifles become the traditional weapon of native alaskans?”