Philippe Morin
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 10, 2007

SACHS HARBOUR - Earl Esau remembers looking through a thick ocean fog and thinking "That's the biggest ugyuk (bearded seal) I've ever seen."

Lawrence Amos, right, and Earl Esau, left, pose with a walrus harvested on Aug. 30. The animal might have been hundreds of miles from its natural habitat, for unexplained reasons. - photo courtesy of Lawrence Amos

But as Esau and his hunting partner Lawrence Amos got closer, navigating on an open-hulled boat, they came to recognize a different animal.

It was a large, old walrus, about 3.5 meters long, which had somehow ventured into shallow ocean waters west of Sachs Harbour.

"We couldn't tell what it was at first, it was swimming under the water, it was a big brown animal," recalls Amos.

But, when the hunters realized what they were seeing, they immediately took action.

"He told me 'Earl, get your rifle, that's a walrus!" recalls Esau with a laugh. "I couldn't believe it."

Working as a pair, the two hunters cornered the beast into shallow waters and shot it several times.

Once the walrus finally sank, its one-tonne body was hooked and dragged back to the community. Esau recalls it was so heavy, it finally had to be hoisted out of the water with a front-end loader.

"There's a lot of excitement, everybody's happy. This is something you don't see every day or every year, it's rare," he said on Sept. 5

Indeed, catching a walrus in Sachs Harbour is a rare and fortunate thing.

While the animals aren't native to the island - they are not native to the Western Arctic - they can easily be adapted to Inuvialuit cooking.

Esau said the animal was carved on the beach and its parts distributed throughout the community.

In accordance with Inuvialuit tradition, the animal's meat and blubber was kept for cooking and boiling.

Its bones were given to dogs, its tusks set aside for carving Inuvialuit art and its thick skin - which might be stretched to four metres square - might be tanned and used for jamboree 'blanket toss' games.

"This was the first walrus I've ever caught," Esau said over the telephone on Sept. 5.

"This is like catching five ugyuk at once."

Esau added it was difficult sawing through the walrus' leathery skin, which can be about two inches thick.

"We used these razor-sharp utility knives, but it was still tough," he said.

While many people in Sachs Harbour might never see a walrus in their lifetime, this one marks the second Amos has harvested in his 47 years of hunting.

The Sachs Harbour hunter remembers he killed another walrus 20 years ago, which was also encountered by chance.

He had been hunting ptarmigan on a beach in Sachs and soon found himself face-to-face with a walrus.

This one, too, had mysteriously appeared on the beach.

"I'm just lucky, I guess," Amos said, though he remembers having trouble dragging the dead walrus back to the hamlet with a three-wheeler ATV.

Whatever the reasons this walrus might have ended up in Sachs Harbour, residents are surely glad it arrived.

"Personally, I think it got tired of swimming against the current," is how Esau explains it.

Erin Hiebert, who works with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Inuvik, said the situation is very rare.

Since walruses usually live in the Eastern Arctic or Alaska, she said, it's possible this animal could have been hundreds of miles off course.

"Its definitely not in its natural habitat."

And since walruses also live in large colonies, Hiebert added it's rather unusual one would travel alone.

In an attempt to solve the mystery, she added DFO would be studying a frozen sample of the walrus meat, which was provided by hunters.

Through genetic testing, she said, it is hoped biologists can determine the animal's point of origin,

"Hopefully, we can determine its age and genetics, find out if it's Eastern Arctic or Alaskan stock" she said.

For Esau and Amos, the walrus is assuredly good news.

And while it might be a scientific mystery that a one-tonne beast would swim from Alaska or Nunavut to Banks Island, no one is about to complain.

Regardless of where it came from, the walrus is good eating, and probably represents a few hundred or thousands of dollars of free groceries.

For Esau, it has meant "surprise and congratulations," from family and friends.