Parker hunted with Jerome Knap of Canada North Outfitting, who has been quietly conducting a small number of these hunts every year since 1994. He is able to do so through Inuit communities, who are allowed to sell permits from their subsistence quota to sportsmen and to guide them as they do for polar bear hunts.
The walrus hunting takes place outside the island village of Igloolik in the Nunavut Territory near Baffin Island. This is a traditional walrus hunting community where walrus has been a protein mainstay for centuries. Hunters stay in a traditional walrus hunting camp about 45 minutes outside of town. The hunting is done from boats, stalking among the ice floes looking for pods of walrus. Hunters normally see anywhere from 30 to 100 adult bulls each day, and anywhere from 70 to 300-plus walrus a day in total. When a large bull is spotted, the hunter makes a brain or neck shot. An assistant guide stands on the bow of the boat with a harpoon attached to a line in order to hit and retrieve the animal should it fall into the water.
The hunts are conducted from about June 20 to July 20. These are six-day hunts, but Knap says he has never had it take more than three days of actual hunting to harvest a bull. It is possible in this part of the world, of course, for bad weather to keep a client in camp for a couple of days. Knap recommends big-caliber rifles for this hunt, certainly nothing smaller than a .338, but preferably a .375 or .416. Shooting ranges are close, usually 10 to 15 yards. The cost of the........(continued)
