By Dan Joling
Associated Press Writer
Monday, Oct. 29, 2001; 5:15 a.m. EST

ANCHORAGE, Alaska –– Alaska ivory carvers found bargains on an estimated 500 pounds of salvaged walrus tusks that many were eager to turn into ornate carvings and jewelry.

"I'm going to use it in my art," said sculptor Gertrude Svarny of Unalaska, who showed up an hour early to be first in line Friday.

Most tusks were found on walrus carcasses washed up on beaches. Under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act, walruses are protected from hunting except by Alaska Natives who live on the coast of the north Pacific Ocean or the Arctic Ocean.

Buyers were let in two-by-two to take up to two tusks. Once everyone had made their first purchases, buyers could come back for more.

Joseph Agibinik, an Eskimo living in Clam Gulch, was pleased with a 2-pound tusk and an 8-ounce tusk he left with.

"It's a score. It's a touchdown," Agibinik said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Eskimo Walrus Commission co-sponsored the sale, timed to coincide with the Alaska Federation of Natives convention. About 3,000 Eskimos, Indians and Aleuts are attending Alaska's largest annual gathering of indigenous people.

Earnings from the government sale will be deposited into the Walrus Conservation Fund for research and education grants.

Carl Kava, director of the Eskimo Walrus Commission, said he and several commissioners graded the tusks. The newest, freshest tusks sold for $35 per pound. One table offered broken pieces of weathered ivory.

"The stuff you really can't work too well is $20 per pound," he said.

Tusks from males were larger but more cracked and worn, in part because they fight during breeding season.

"The cracks tend to hamper the carver's ingenuity," Kava said. "Female tusks tend to be easier to carve. They're softer ivory."

Deceptively heavy, tusks feel more like smooth, dense oak than tooth. The largest tusk weighed 9 pounds and was close to 30 inches long.

"Imagine carrying two of those from your upper jaw," said Marc Webber, a Fish and Wildlife Service marine mammal biologist.

To the walrus, they're much more than decoration.

The Latin genus name for walrus is odobenus, which means "tooth-walker," said Fish and Wildlife biologist Jonathon Snyder. Walruses use their tusks to clamp down on ice and haul themselves out of the water.

Tusks also may be helpful in diving, and are used for protection against walruses' primary predator, polar bears, and to kill seals when they can.

Agibinik chose smaller tusks that had few scars and said he may polish them and leave them whole.

"It's more artistic than what I can make it," he said.

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On the Net:

http://www.fws.gov

http://www.state.ak.us/local/akpages/FISH.GAME