Alaska Natives losing food and economy source
Friday, August 29, 2008
Filed Under:
Environment
Inupiaq Eskimos in Alaska are seeing fewer and fewer walruses, an important source of food and income.
This year, the residents of King Island failed to capture a single walrus. That means they will go without meat for the winter and they won't be able to market goods made out of walrus parts.
"This is the only way we make our living -- things are getting tougher and tougher," Hubert Kokuluk told The Washington Post. "I don't know what we'll do if we don't hunt walrus."
Climate change may be to blame. Sea ice has been quickly melting in the past few years, forcing animals like the walrus to head to land, where it's harder for them to survive.
Get the Story:
Sea-Ice Melt Imperils Walruses, and Economy Based on Them
(The Washington Post 8/29)
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Scientists Report Further Shrinking of Arctic Ice (The Washington Post 8/27)
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