Pacific walrus are at risk

As many as 15,000 walruses began crowding the shore near Point Lays, Alaska, in August and are just starting to disperse as ice forms in chilly fall weather, federal biologists said. Like polar bears, walruses are suffering because of a scarcity of summer and fall sea ice in Arctic waters that scientists attribute to climate change.  And like polar bears, which were listed as threatened in 2008, protections under the Endangered Species Act may be granted to walruses, even though it is hard to get an accurate count of their population.