Pacific Walrus Coastal Haulout Database 1852-2016

We summarize Pacific walrus coastal haulout locations reported in published papers, reports, and personal communications from 1893 through 2014. We report haulout locations based on available reports, as well as the authors? personal knowledge of specific haulout locations and publicly available geo-referenced imagery (Digital Globe, Longmont, Colorado, USA) viewed through a virtual digital globe (Google Earth TM). For each haulout location, we provide a brief geographic description indicating the country (Russian Federation or United States), waters (Bering, Chukchi, or East Siberian Seas, or North Pacific or Arctic Oceans), geographic region and prominent local landmarks. When hauled out on land, walruses are generally restricted to a narrow strip along the coast. As such, haulouts are essentially linear coastal geographic features. Due to the scale at which exact locations are known, the scale that locations may shift among bouts of use, and the scale at which we expect this database to be used, we indicate each haulout as a single geographic point. However, for some larger haulouts and for some haulouts that have repeatedly formed along an extended coastline, we also indicate a linear geographic feature in addition to a geographic point. For a haulout that formed at various features within an enclosed bay, a distinct promontory, or small island of less than 5 km diameter, we indicated the haulout location with a single point.