The Department of Fish and Game said Friday that it will be moving the north boundary of the Ugashik commercial fishing district approximately one mile south on account of the walrus hauled out at Cape Greig.
“Well the reasoning is that the animals are there, and there are lots of federal regulations that require certain distances be kept from endangering threatened species. That’s the short story,” said area management biologist Paul Salomone Friday morning. “We have to maintain some distance between us and them.”
The walrus showed up at Cape Greig, 8 miles north of Ugashik Bay, this spring. Bristol Bay has several other main haulouts used by male Pacific walrus during the summer, including the iconic spot at Round Island. Residents and pilots flying the Peninsula coast this spring noticed the walrus, and US Fish and Wildlife Service staff at the nearby refuge office in King Salmon documented them by aerial survey.
