Estimation of Abundance and Demographic Rates of Pacific Walruses in the Bering and Chukchi Seas, 2015

• Main Authors: Lemons, Patrick, Wenburg, John, Sethi, Suresh, Cook, Geoffrey, MacCracken, James, Garlich-Miller, Joel
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Axiom Data Science 2020
• Subjects: Pacific; Beaufort Sea; Chukchi; Sea ice; walrus*
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.24431/rw1k446; https://search.dataone.org/#view/10.24431/rw1k446

This study estimated abundance and demographic rates, including survival and recruitment, of Pacific walruses in the Beaufort Sea in 2015. The data collected was used to determine the feasibility of conducting a large scale and long-term capture-mark-recapture effort to determine the size of the Pacific walrus population as well as age and sex specific survival and recruitment of the population. The decline in sea ice habitat and the associated stressors are causing a population decline of Pacific walrus. This study provided a baseline for monitoring Pacific walrus populations. The data was collected from visual observations of Pacific walruses in which skin biopsy samples were collected and used for individual identification. The field data was collected on an electronic field entry system, a Juniper Mesa and converted to a csv file.