Alaska’s popular walrus cam is back after a decade

A popular webcam showing large male Pacific walruses lying on the beach with a Hitchcockian number of seabirds flying overhead is once again streaming to the Internet. The high-definition stream from Alaska’s remote Round Island had been dormant for nearly a decade after private funding ran out, but a high-definition version is back now, thanks to a philanthropic organisation that operates a series of nature webcams from around the planet.

This is an incredible resource to have and very, very difficult to get to. And to show people, from Bristol Bay to their desk in Indiana or wherever, it’s an incredible opportunity.

Maria Gladziszewski, the acting deputy director of Fish and Game’s Division of Wildlife Conservation

A monetary grant from explore.org, along with other donations this year, have had an unintended benefit for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The funds are allowing the Alaska state government — struggling financially because of low oil prices — to put two paid staff members on the island to not only welcome the handful of visitors it gets every year, but also to help prevent boats or aircraft from spooking the 2-ton walruses and sparking a stampede. If the donation hadn’t come through, Round Island would have been closed to visitors this year. Round Island — which can only be reached by an hours-long boat ride from hub communities in southwest Alaska — had just 42 visitors last year. Only five of those camped out overnight in the primitive conditions. The four Round Island webcams allow up-close views of walruses that few people ever see in person.

To be able to capture a walrus, not just ‘a’ walrus but a herd of walrus on a beach is beyond description.

Charlie Annenberg Weingarten, vice president of the Annenberg Foundation and founder of explore.org

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