A year after Russia invaded Ukraine, a walrus discovery is caught up in geopolitics
By Kavitha George, Alaska Public Media - Anchorage
Last October, research biologist Tony Fischbach made a startling discovery. Using satellite imagery, Fischbach and his team counted 200,000 Pacific walrus on one Russian beach at Cape Serdtse-Kamen’, bordering the Chukchi Sea.
It suggests that the most recent population estimate, which measured about 260,000 Pacific walrus in the world, may have been an undercount.
A year ago, Fischbach would have been able to quickly confirm the finding with his Russian colleagues. But since the U.S. severed many research ties with Russia at the start of the Ukraine invasion, he doesn’t know when that will happen.
Fischbach studies walrus populations for the U.S. Geological Survey, a federal agency that studies natural resources and the ha...