Activist recommends rafts for walruses due to declining sea ice

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – An environmental activist is calling on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider placing anchored rafts in the ocean as resting platforms for walruses after stampedes killed 64 animals on Alaska's northwest coast.

Rick Steiner, an environmental consultant and former University of Alaska marine conservation professor, pitched the idea two years ago. The Fish and Wildlife Service concluded it didn't have the money or manpower to provide artificial resting platforms that might give a few walruses relief but not benefit the population as a whole in the absence of i...