April 22, 2005

• Poachers have made enemies,

  better watch out.

  In the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta, villagers

  and subsistence hunters have been watching a small herd of musk ox that

  had moved into the Mud Volcanos area, looking forward to the herd’s

  establishing itself and growing into a sustainable resource.  In

  addition to meat and hides, the soft underfur of the musk ox, called

  qiviut, can be woven or knitted into garments that are softer than

  wool, not scratchy, and won’t shrink.

  Musk ox used to live all over the Arctic, but after guns came along

  they were hunted to extinction.  Gone from Alaska by the late

  1800s,  a small herd was transplanted from Greenland in

  1931.  It has multiplied, been moved around, splintered and

  spread, and had small herds split off for seed stock in various areas

  of Alaska and even to the Russian Arctic.

  Since January, poachers have killed 12-14 of the Mud Volcanos herd,

  about half of it.  Federal agents and Alaska State Troopers have

  been investigating.  Troopers say they think eight men from one

  village did almost all of the killing in recent weeks.

  Roger Seavoy manages hunting in the region for the Alaska Department of

  Fish and Game.  He says the locals are really fried:

  “There’s a lot of people calling me up

  with such anger and venom in their voice — ‘Take their snowmachines,

  put them in jail for life, take away their Permanent Fund dividends,’ “

  Feuds have developed over less than this.  I wouldn’t want to be

  one of those poachers or even one of their relatives, when all the

  details become public.  By law, they can lose their guns and their

  snowmachines, besides being fined and maybe jailed.  The social

  consequences — that’s unpredictable, but not likely to be

  pleasant.  Greed and waste are not approved in that culture.

  Anchorage Daily News / Poachers thin new musk ox herd.
  

  • 9:42 pm
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