Walrus from Space: Working with walrus

Hannah and Walrus from Space

“Hi! I am Hannah Cubaynes, a wildlife from space scientist at the British Antarctic Survey. I joined the Walrus from Space project to lead the science behind monitoring walrus using satellite imagery and the help of citizen science (members of the public).“

Walrus in person

“The first group of walruses I ever observed (not from space) is one of the most memorable wild walrus encounters I have experienced. I remember feeling a mix of excitement, relief and wonder. Excited to find them and see them for the first time. (Walruses can make lots of noise, which sounded to me like a rowdy group arguing!) Relief that the fieldwork was successful. And wonder because there I was, observing walruses relaxing on shore, with a few of them cooling off in the water, surrounded by the most gorgeous scenery I had ever seen, with crystal clear waters and spiky snowy mountains. I wanted to stay there all day and observe walrus life go by.”

What drives your commitment to walrus

“My commitment to walrus conservation is driven by the wish to understand how well they are faring in today’s world and whether solutions can be identified to safeguard their future. Walrus populations are recovering from commercial hunting, but they are now facing new human pressure, with their habitat changing rapidly due to the loss of sea ice, which is impacting their food source and increasing disturbance, mostly because of intensifying shipping traffic. From a personal perspective, I believe I have a responsibility in helping human activities limit and mitigate their negative impacts on walrus populations.

There is a lot we do not know because walruses inhabit vast and remote regions that are logistically difficult to survey. Using satellite imagery can help fill these gaps and that motivates me to keep developing this tool."

Hopes for the future

“My hopes for the future of walruses is that their numbers recover to pre-commercial hunting and that they adapt to their changing habitats (hoping human activities limit their pressure on them). The walrus population of Svalbard helps me maintain that hope, colleagues from the Norwegian Polar Institute have shown their number to have increased, and for every year of the Walrus from Space project, we found several of the haul-out sites in Svalbard occupied by walruses, including newly discovered sites.”

Kit and Walrus from Space

“My name's Kit Kovacs, I'm the Svalbard Programme Leader for the Norwegian Polar Institute. We’re responsible for monitoring the walrus population residing in Svalbard, Norway - in terms of numbers, changing distribution, and the impact of climate change, tourism, and any other potential threats. Our part of the Arctic is warming very, very rapidly. It’s the fastest warming part of the planet at 6x the global average.

In terms of Walrus from Space, my institute has been able to provide support to verifying the satellite image counts – with simultaneous observations “on the ground." Additionally, we are part of the broader global team that the project has brought together – uniting walrus expertise across much of the species’ range."

Walrus in person

“I saw my first walruses in 1978 during my very first job as a biologist. […] It’s been a very long history with me and walrus!

They’re extremely interesting animals, because their appearance defies their real personality and character. They’re cute - in the right eyes - but they don’t look super intelligent! And that’s a very false impression because they’re incredibly smart. And when you see them on the shore, an adult is quite awkward because they weigh so much. But if you see them underwater, they are like ballet dancers!"

Hopes for the future

"I think if you're working in any kind of conservation field, you have to be an extreme optimist. But currently I’m a bit exhausted by people talking about climate change as though it is something that is in the future. It’s already happening in a very extreme way in the Arctic and elsewhere! We’ve already seen a dramatic change over the last two decades, especially in the Northeast Atlantic Arctic, in places including Svalbard. It won’t be too long before we start seeing the impact of these ecosystem changes on how well walrus are able to live their lives – we know they’re ice breeders and that sea ice platforms are important to them much of the year – and sea ice is rapidly disappearing. We need to push our politicians to respond to climate change now. Not put it off as something that is in the future. It is now undeniably changing our planet - warming has been taking place for many decades already.

So, I’m hoping folks wake up. I’m hoping that people accept that we have to change our own behaviour to slow climate change. And I want us to recognise that it is not impossible."

Jeff and Walrus from Space

"My name is Jeff Higdon, I’m a consulting wildlife biologist in Winnipeg, Canada. I’ve been working on walruses for about 20 years. My very first project I worked on was a walrus biopsy sampling project. So, my very first exposure to the Arctic and Inuit culture was very closely tied to walrus. It’s a species that’s always been close to my heart.

One of the main projects that was related for WWF-Canada was back in 2016, we built a map of haul out sites to support land use planning in Nunavut. We [then later] published the database through Walrus from Space and we update that as new information becomes available. It’s important to help direct the scientific research as well as wildlife management and reducing disturbance."

Walrus in person

It’s been a while since I’ve seen walrus in the wild. It’s been too long. But I have seen many walruses over the years in different parts of the Arctic.

I think walrus often get a reputation for being pretty belligerent. And they certainly can be – they’re a big, strong, tough animal. But when you watch mums and calves, there is a kind of tenderness that the mum displays for the calf.”

Hopes for the future

"I hope the future brings continued recovery for Atlantic walrus and continued co-management. We’ve shown that with proper wildlife management and addressing threats, we can recover walrus populations. Overexploitation was the main threat here in Canada. We addressed that, ended commercial exploitation.

I think today’s threats can be managed too, but it’s going to take a certain level of political will. I think Inuit and northerners are going to be at the forefront of driving that, and that does give me hope for sure."

_{Left: Cory Matthews. Right: Travis Qaunaq.}

Cory and Walrus from Space

"Hi, my name’s Cory Matthews. I work in Fisheries and Oceans Canada – our federal government department that’s responsible for [the stewardship of Canada's fisheries and marine resources]. My primary responsibility is marine mammal stock assessments, assessing where the population level is now, what is expected in the future. And walrus is one of the species I’m responsible for!

Some species, you can come up with a pretty clear model of ‘climate change is going to be bad, and here’s why’. But with walrus in the Canadian Arctic, is it gonna be negative, positive short term with greater open-water access, then negative with changes in their food supply? It’s an interesting question, to try to put together those pieces. So WWF-Canada asked if I'd like to be involved with this bigger [Walrus from Space] group. Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s fieldwork with communities is mostly at well-known sites. So, the strength of the satellite monitoring [via Walrus from Space] has been in discovering new areas where there haven't been previous observations, as well as frequency of monitoring sites over time. We've been adding these new sites to our database, which will improve surveys of the population.

It's also been really nice to be in touch with a global group working on the same thing."

Walrus in person

“There was this one day, it’s really foggy, really calm, no wind. The water is really still, ice chunks everywhere, really eerie. As we were coming up, there were maybe ten to twenty walruses hauled out on the ice. When you see this beautiful animal, where it’s supposed to be, it makes a big difference.”

Hopes for the future

"Walruses are globally important as an Arctic species, but who they’re really important to is the Indigenous people who live there, who rely on them, they’re culturally important. A lot of the work I do has been trying to involve Inuit more. They embrace the research. And their traditional knowledge is equally important. It'd be great to transfer a lot of the Fisheries and Oceans Canada research programme to local people who live there. That would be my big hope.”

Through his work at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Cory collaborates with local communities in fieldwork to monitor walrus at known sites - including activities like fitting tracking tags and taking biopsy samples. Together, the WWF-Canada-supported fieldwork and Walrus from Space satellite monitoring help us to build a stronger understanding of how walrus populations are doing and what we need to do to help safeguard them.

Hear from Igloolik community member Travis Qaunaq on the important field work that's taking place alongside Walrus from Space.

Travis and walrus

“My name is Travis Quanaq. I’ve lived in Igloolik, Nunavut most of my life. My role doing the walrus research started in 2022, doing satellite tagging, biopsies, drone and plane surveys of haul outs to help inform management. Researchers needed a boat to help them with their field work, so that’s when I first started.”

Walrus in person

“Every year is different depending on the weather. Sometimes we have more summer sea ice and sometimes there’s less, so more walruses would be hauled out on land. I have a lot of encounters with walruses. But my favourite one might be when maybe close to 1,000 walruses were hauled out on land while I was doing tagging in 2024. They were on a small island, one or two square kilometres."

Hopes for the future

"On the scientific side, we want to learn where the walrus go. In fact, we have a mining company that’s going to start shipping here, so ice breakers will be coming up here. So, we might see an increase in shipping where all the walruses are hauled out on ice. We’re hoping our research will change these plans."