Walrus cam switched off

A POPULAR webcam of a Walrus colony is going to be switched off for a bit because the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, don't want to see the beasts being killed by Native Alaskans.

The webcams on the Walrus Islands State Game Sanctuary, Alaska, on Round Island in the Bering Sea, where every year Native Alaskans are allowed to bump off 20 of them with high powered rifles and gut them on the beach.

The Native Alaskans are a little worried that the naturalist types who watch the cams will be put off by seeing the Walruses shot and butchered during the traditional subsistence hunt and demand the tradition is stopped.

They don't want a repeat of the seal clubbing outcry that happens in Canada, so they have asked for the webcams to be switched off.

The cameras will be switched off on Friday and will not be online again until October 21. However the site access is usually switched of during winter in September because of limited funding.

When we popped into the site, it was down due to bad weather anyway.

The hunt was banned in 1960 but was re-allowed in 1995 after an agreement with the government, although not the Walruses, who wanted the time to talk of cabbages and kings and such things and above all not get shot and butchered.

More goo-goo-ga joob here. µ