Walrus

Walruses live only in the Arctic, in two subspecies: the Pacific walrus of the Bering and Chukchi seas, about 257,000 strong in the latest US estimate, and the Atlantic walrus, which numbers 20,000 to 30,000 from the central Canadian Arctic east to Russia's Kara Sea.¹² For a traveler the easy place is Svalbard, where walruses rest on the same beaches summer after summer and expedition ships land within sight of them. Alaska's Round Island is the do-it-yourself alternative, by permit and tent.³ Walruses are listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, in a 2025 assessment.⁴⁵

Where is the best place to see walruses?

Svalbard is the best place on an expedition cruise: its walruses were protected in 1952, when about 100 were left, and an aerial survey in 2018 put the number in the Svalbard area at about 5,503.⁶ The other places are harder to reach or closed to most travelers:

Where do you see walruses in Svalbard?

On a Svalbard cruise you usually see walruses on a beach haul-out, from a Zodiac or from a landing kept at a set distance. The Norwegian Polar Institute's haul-out database held 98 land sites in 2018; that year's survey found animals at 19 of the sites visited, with calves at seven.⁶ Operators name the same few beaches again and again:

• Forlandsundet, on the west coast: Oceanwide aims to land at Sarstangen and also lists a haul-out at Poolepynten.⁷
• Torellneset: Hapag-Lloyd says herds of walrus lie on its flat ledges.⁸
• Kapp Lee, on the northwest of Edgeøya, south of Freemansundet: walruses rest on the beach at Stretehamna, beside one of Svalbard's largest old walrus slaughtering sites, where hundreds of nose-chopped skulls still lie.⁹
• Andréetangen: AECO says high numbers frequently rest on the beach, females with calves among them, and sometimes surround the trapper's cabin built by Henri Rudi in 1946.¹⁰
• Phippsøya, in the Seven Islands north of Nordaustlandet: Oceanwide lists a haul-out there on its pack ice voyages.²¹

Most Svalbard walruses are males. Females and calves of the shared population live mostly toward Franz Josef Land, although the Polar Institute says more mothers with calves are turning up in Svalbard as the animals reoccupy their old range.² Short on time? Visit Svalbard recommends a walrus and whale safari by boat from Longyearbyen during the summer, when you watch the animals on the beach from the boat.²²

Which Svalbard cruise is best for seeing walruses?

The cheapest 2027 voyage we found that names a haul-out is Oceanwide's 6-day A Taste of North Spitsbergen on Ortelius, at $3,250 for a berth in a shared quad, with one quad cabin left at that price on each of its two departures when we checked.²³²⁴ These are the lowest fares on each operator's own page, per person, read on October 14 and 15, 2026, with the availability shown that day:

HX's price includes its 130th Anniversary Offers; the extra 5% off cabins applies only to new bookings made by November 9, 2026.²⁶²⁸ Its two cheapest dates also fall after the early-May-to-early-August window HX itself gives for walruses; its June 12 to July 24 departures cost $9,623 to $12,909.¹¹²⁶

Our pick for walruses on a budget is A Taste of North Spitsbergen: it is the lowest fare and its fifth day aims for the Poolepynten haul-out, with Alkhornet as the fallback.²³ If the last quad cabin goes, a twin berth on the same sailing is $4,500.²⁴ Skip it if you want the eastern beaches at Kapp Lee and Edgeøya, which only the circumnavigations in the table list, or a second haul-out, which the 8-day Polar Bear Special adds at Phippsøya.²⁶²¹ Our Svalbard cruises guide compares the whole market.

What are the rules for watching walruses?

In Svalbard, boats must stay at least 490 ft (150 m) from a walrus haul-out and may not go faster than 5 knots within 980 ft (300 m), under motor traffic rules in force since January 1, 2025.²⁹ AECO, the Arctic expedition cruise association, adds its own guidelines for member ships and tells them to follow any stricter local law:³⁰

• Land at least 980 ft (300 m) from a haul-out, with the wind blowing from the walruses toward you.
• Split into groups of fewer than 50 and approach from one side only.
• Never go closer than about 100 ft (30 m), or 490 ft (150 m) from mothers with calves, however calm the animals look.
• Retreat quietly if walruses show signs of disturbance or come ashore toward you.
• Never swim, kayak or dive in walrus waters. Walruses are powerful swimmers and may attack a Zodiac with their tusks if they feel threatened.

The legal distances AECO lists differ by country:³⁰²⁹

The distances exist because frightened walruses stampede into the sea. In the fall of 2007, researchers and hunters counted more than 2,600 dead walruses at haulouts on the Chukchi Sea coast, most of them apparently trampled.¹ Stampedes can also make walruses abandon a haul-out for years.³¹

Can you see walruses in Greenland and Arctic Canada?

Yes, but fewer of them, and only on voyages that go far. In East Greenland, walruses live mainly inside the national park north of the entrance to Scoresby Sund, at about 71°N, and NAMMCO's table gives an estimate of 279 for the Northeast Water area in 2017.¹² Visit Greenland says the park's land haul-outs are the only ones left in Greenland, with the best sites in the Dove Bay area and Young Sound, and that July and August, when the fjords are free of ice, are the months to go.¹³ Oceanwide's Northeast Greenland Extreme sails into Dove Bugt and passes Sabine Ø, where it says the walruses of Hvalros Island are increasing again.²⁵ West Greenland's walruses spend fall to spring on offshore banks, then cross about 280 miles (450 km) of Davis Strait to Baffin Island once the sea ice melts, so they are gone from those banks in summer, when Greenland cruises sail.¹²

The largest Atlantic stocks are in Arctic Canada: NAMMCO's table puts North and Central Foxe Basin at 14,093 in 2011 and the Hudson Bay to Davis Strait stock at 7,100 in 2014.¹² Few trips go there. HX's new 19-day circumnavigation of Baffin Island, in its 2028 season, will sail the remote waters of Foxe Basin and attempt the Fury and Hecla Strait, which HX calls rarely navigated by expedition vessels.³² For 2027, Monumental Island, which Scenic calls a renowned haven for walrus, is on Atlas's 14-night Churchill to Nuuk voyage on World Navigator from August 15 ($17,799 per person, double occupancy, charter flights from Toronto included) and on Scenic's 17-day Greenland to Hudson Bay voyage on Scenic Eclipse from August 27 ($18,455 per person in a Verandah Suite, double occupancy, on a Preferred Fare valid until December 31, 2026).¹⁶¹⁴ On the Northwest Passage, Quark says walruses frequent the waters of Croker Bay.¹⁵

Can you see Pacific walruses in Alaska?

Yes: Round Island, in the Walrus Islands State Game Sanctuary about 65 miles (105 km) southwest of Dillingham, is one of four major land haulouts in Alaska. Large numbers of male walruses haul out on its rocky beaches each summer, and up to 14,000 have been counted in a single day, though numbers swing a lot from year to year.³ What it takes:

• A permit. Access is allowed only by permit and only while sanctuary staff are on the island, usually May 1 to August 15; the island and the waters within 3 nautical miles are restricted.¹⁸
• A tent. A 5-day camping permit costs $100 and a day visit $20. There are 12 camping permits for each period of about five days, and applications open September 1 for the next summer, first come, first served.³³
• Your own transport. Scheduled flights run from Anchorage to Dillingham and Togiak, then a boat taxi; ADF&G lists two authorized transporters and warns that tides and weather may force an overnight in Togiak.³⁴

ADF&G calls Round Island a remote wilderness far from medical help, where visitors must be entirely self-sufficient; skip it if that does not suit you.³³ By ship, HX's 25-day Northwest Passage on Roald Amundsen, from $27,118 on August 8, 2027, says you may see Pacific walruses on the floes near Point Barrow if there is sea ice.¹⁷

Can you visit Franz Josef Land or Chukotka to see walruses?

Not with a Western operator in 2027. Svalbard's walruses belong to one population with those of Franz Josef Land, and Russia has protected walruses in its western Arctic since 1956.²¹² Poseidon Expeditions says that because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict it is unable to market or operate its icebreaker cruises through Russian territory, and the US State Department's advisory for Russia is "Level 4: Do Not Travel".¹⁹²⁰ Russian-run trips still go to Franz Josef Land; our Franz Josef Land page covers them, the US sanctions on the operator of the icebreaker most visitors use, and the nearest Western alternative, Kvitøya on Poseidon's Svalbard circumnavigation. Chukotka, across the Bering Strait from Alaska, has many Pacific walrus haulouts on the Chukchi Sea coast, but it is Russia too, and we found no 2027 cruise on sale there.¹

When is the best time to see walruses?

June to August on a Svalbard cruise, and May to mid-August on Round Island.¹¹¹⁸ HX puts Svalbard's walrus season at early May to early August, particularly along the west coast of Spitsbergen.¹¹ Walruses stay in Svalbard waters all year, but they rest mostly on ice floes and use land haul-outs in summer and autumn, which is when ships can reach them.² Calves are born in May on the pack ice and breeding takes place in December and January, out of season for visitors.² In late summer walruses spend about a quarter of their time hauled out, more often in the afternoon and evening.¹²

How big is a walrus, and what does it eat?

An adult male Atlantic walrus is 10 to 11.5 ft (3 to 3.5 m) long and weighs about 3,300 lb (1,500 kg); females are about 8 ft (2.5 m) and 2,000 lb (900 kg).² Pacific bulls can reach 12 ft (3.7 m) and 2 tons.³⁵ Both sexes carry tusks, which grow up to 3.3 ft (1 m) and 11 lb (5 kg) on big bulls.² Walruses use them to haul out onto ice, to fight and to display, but not to dig for food.³⁰³⁵

They eat mostly clams, found with their sensitive whiskers and sucked out of the shell, thousands in one meal; some large males also take seals and seabirds, and in Svalbard walruses have been seen hunting pink-footed geese.²¹² One tagged walrus in Northeast Greenland ate about 126 lb (57 kg) of clams a day, close to 5% of its body weight.¹² Most dives in Svalbard are shallower than 165 ft (50 m), though one went deeper than 1,480 ft (450 m).² Walruses live more than 40 years, a calf nurses for two to three years, and their main predators are polar bears and killer whales, which mostly take calves.² Our polar bear page covers the bears, and Arctic animals the rest of the cast.

Are walruses endangered?

Not endangered, but Vulnerable: that is the category in the IUCN Red List's 2025 assessment of the walrus, by K.M. Kovacs, and the authors of a 2026 haul-out study explain that the IUCN classes walruses as Vulnerable because their populations are predicted to decline as sea ice is lost.⁵³¹ The IUCN's October 2025 update warned that the shrinking ice threatens walruses as well as ice seals.³⁶

• Pacific walrus: 257,193 in 2017, with a credible range of 171,138 to 366,366; the trend is unknown.¹ The US Fish and Wildlife Service's 2023 stock assessment says it is not listed under the US Endangered Species Act, but that the Service has been petitioned to list it and is assessing the threats. Native hunters in Alaska and Chukotka took an average of 4,210 a year for subsistence from 2016 to 2020.¹
• Atlantic walrus: about 30,000 in the North Atlantic, with the largest stocks in Arctic Canada and West Greenland.¹²
• Svalbard: about 100 in 1952, 2,629 in 2006, 3,886 in 2012 and 5,503 in 2018, a 41.6% rise in six years.⁶

Svalbard shows what protection can do, and the 2018 count is not the last word: the Polar Institute's monitoring page lists its next update for October 2026.⁶