Drowning walrus pups -- video?

[Hell Hath No Fury]

I need DUers help.

I've heard there was footage on TV recently of walrus calves that have been drowning due to the decrease in the ice shelf. Has anyone seen this and/or does anyone know if there is video available? My sister works at In Defense of Animals and wants to investigate this.

Thanks for your help!
Hell

[robinlynne]

1. greenpeace has films of polar bears starving and drowning.

It is a terrible thing to see. I saw it over a year ago, and will never forget it. they are groaning in starvation, stuck in the middle of water.
They probably would be a place to look.

[Dead_Parrot]

2. There's some pictures...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x955713

I hope to hell there isn't a video as well, I'm not sure how much more I can take this week.

[leftchick]

3. No video but photos...

http://www.whoi.edu/mr/pr.do?id=12209

Walrus Calves Stranded by Melting Sea Ice


Scientists have reported an unprecedented number of unaccompanied and possibly abandoned walrus calves in the Arctic Ocean, where melting sea ice may be forcing mothers to abandon their pups as the mothers follow the rapidly retreating ice edge north.

Nine lone walrus calves were reported swimming in deep waters far from shore by researchers aboard the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy during a cruise in the Canada Basin in the summer of 2004. Unable to forage for themselves, the calves were likely to drown or starve, the scientists said.

Lone walrus calves far from shore have not been described before, the researchers report in the April issue of Aquatic Mammals. The sightings suggest that increased polar warming may lead to decreases in the walrus population.

“We were on a station for 24 hours, and the calves would be swimming around us crying. We couldn’t rescue them,” said Carin Ashjian, a biologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and a member of the research team.

[freethought]

4. From what I had seen the videos were not of walrus calves

drowning but of walrus calves being found swimming alone, w/out their mothers in open water. The scientists who spotted them said they would approach the ships, attracted to anything larger than themselves, and just start "barking". The scientists were devasted given that there was nothing they could do to help them, they lacked equipment, knowledge, experience, supplies etc... They could only look on as the ship went on. Given that the calves were separated from their mothers and had no experience to forage on their own, it is likely the calves died either from starvation or drowning due to exhaustion.