In late 1989, hundreds of headless walrus washed ashore on the coastline of Alaska’s Seward Peninsula, the westernmost part of the North American mainland.

Was it the result of subsistence hunting by Native Alaskans who traditionally used the meat, hides, blubber, bones, and ivory tusks without leaving so much waste behind? Was it the consequence of poaching for ivory tusks alone? Or could Russian villagers on the opposite side of the Bering Strait have been responsible?