Sting Breaks Up Slaughter of Alaska Wildlife

A two-year federal undercover operation has broken up one of the biggest illegal wildlife slaughters in modern Alaska history.

Drugs, savagely beheaded animals, traditional Eskimo lifestyles and tourist fancy for ivory all were intertwined in the case, which is rocking Alaska and could outrage millions of Americans.

So far, 29 persons in Alaska--both Eskimos and non-natives--have been charged. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says at least 80 more may be arrested as a result of the grisly massacre of protected walruses to provide ivory for the tourist trade.

Federal agents say that not only walrus tusks, but also polar bear hides, seal skins and sea otter furs were illegally marketed for cash and drugs.

Authorities described a loose ring of “buddies” who butchered animals illegally on the west and north coasts of Alaska, sold the valuable ivory and hides to undercover agents in Anchorage and then purchased marijuana and cocaine to take back to the lonely and isolated villages of bush Alaska.

As with other recent sensational crime cases, the charges are backed up with a videotape, which the Fish and Wildlife Service said was taken by one of its agents in the course of the sting operation.

In the edited pictures, a group of Eskimo hunters in the Bering Sea approach an ice floe in their traditional skin boats. More than a half-dozen hunters stand off and open fire with rifles at close range into small herds of walruses. The shooting appears indiscriminate. The huge, bewhiskered beasts are shot where they lie basking in the air. Others are shot as they try to swim to safety.

The hunters then approach walrus carcasses, hack off the heads for ivory and roll the blubbery bodies into the cold sea. Untold other wounded animals flounder in the water and almost certainly perish. “I almost didn’t let the videotape out. It goes almost as far as you can go in shock value,” said U.S. Atty. Wevley William Shea in Anchorage.

The cornerstone of the sting operation was a storefront ivory trading post established and operated by two federal agents in Anchorage. Here, agents bought 693 pounds of raw ivory tusks (a single walrus tusk weighs two to five pounds), 32 walrus heads, six polar bear hides, four seal skins and nine sea otter hides. All of them were sold illegally, the agents said.

Neither walruses nor polar bears are endangered in Alaska, but both populations are strictly protected.

By law, Eskimos and other indigenous Alaskans can kill walruses, polar bears and other sea creatures for food and to make traditional native handicrafts for sale. But animals may not be killed wantonly or wastefully for their tusks or pelt alone. Any animal pieces offered for public sale after such subsistence hunting must be “worked” by native artisans.

Polar bear hides, for example, would have to be made into rugs to be legal. They can fetch $5,000 easily on the Anchorage fur market. Ivory must be carved or scrimshawed. A full-tusk that is ornately finished can bring $1,000.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said it paid about $25 a pound for the raw ivory in its sting. Agents said that, to their surprise, the illegal ivory and pelt traders were more often interested in finding drugs than cash.

The operation reached a climax Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in Alaska when the National Guard and more than 120 federal and state agents, flying in two C-130 military cargo planes and a Blackhawk helicopter, fanned out into rural western Alaska, into Nome, Dillingham and small villages in between. Eskimo leaders reacted with both gratitude and uneasiness about the operation.

Tribal officials said they were happy about anything that would reduce the flow of drugs into distant villages, and declared their support for the U.S. government requirement that animals not be wasted.

“This was clearly wanton waste, and that’s not acceptable to the native value system,” said Julie Kitka, president of the Alaska Federation of Natives.

But throughout the state, natives were also alarmed by the public outcry and potential backlash against traditional native crafts and the subsistence lifestyle. Will the videotape and bloody tales fuel the animal rights movement, which seeks to stop all traditional hunting of sea mammals, native artisans asked.

Each year, natives kill about 2,800 walruses (just over 1% of the known population) and 120 or so polar bears (about 3% of the population). Much of this walrus ivory, carved or scrimshawed, ends up on the legal market in Alaska. The demand for such ivory has increased sharply ever since an international ban was enacted against trade in African elephant ivory, itself the result of excessive poaching.

In fact, the government’s sting operation began after animal rights activists circulated bloody pictures of dead Alaskan walruses, killed only for their tusks. Subsequently, native leaders called on the Fish and Wildlife Service to investigate.

Times special correspondent David Hulen in Anchorage contributed to this story.