Walrus Ivory

A

akivory

Joined
Feb 5, 2001
Messages
808
Last week I flew to ST. Lawrence Island to buy fossil walrus ivory and whale bone. I bought the whale bone for myself and picked up the walrus for my friend Dan Westlind. I have made my living for the last 27 years buying ,selling and carving fossil bone and ivory.Other than a little ivory I sell on eBay I wholesale my ivory to a few dealers I have dealt with for a long time.
This is only the second time I have been to the Island in 15 years. There have been a lot of changes most of them not good. It is still one of the most amazing places on earth and every time I have been there I have had some experience that I will never forget.
Almost all the legal old walrus ivory and oosik available today comes from this island. Last night there was a story on NPR about global warming from Gambell and Savoonga that will give you an idea of what life is now like there. Here is a link to the audio of this broadcast:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14428086
If you listen to the guy talk about whaling it will help you understand these hunters connection with the animals that thy live with.
Although expensive it is hard to find a more durable and beautifull material than walrus
ivory. It is truly amazing to think that the ivory on your knife was taken by a
hunter in a skin boat from servral hundred to over two thousand years ago.
 
That was a sad article.
But when you consider that my older brother and sister lived in a house with no bathroom, (though there was an out house, and there was running water inside, and I am only 53), (we got an inside bathroom the year I was born - '54), I guess we can't expect the entire world to remain completely "ancient".
The "civilized" world came a long way in a few decades, it's only logical that the remainder catch up sometime!
 
I heard the peice on npr too. It so happens I am using Walrus Tusk on a knife I'm making now and it does make me stop and think. It was an interesting and sad account of the changes they are undergoing. Lin
 
I think that us humans wil make enough changes that we die off in huge numbers and then the animals will come back quicker than most people think. It has been 20 years since Chernobyl and there are wolf packs and a natural ecosystem already. I just wish we could reduce our population painlessly rather than in the more painfull way mother nature tends to use.
 
I wondered what the rules are for using the whale bone? Is it illegal for them to export any of that bone, after they have legally hunted those whales? It looks like the bones just sit on the beach anyway.
 
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