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NATURE Online asked filmmaker Adam Ravetch,
featured in TOOTHWALKERS to talk about the experience of filming walruses
underwater:
Filming the Arctic walrus presented many challenges. |
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I was searching for new subject matter, wildlife that little was known
about, and I wanted to be challenged physically. I also wanted an adventure.
So the Arctic was the perfect place. On my earlier trips to the north,
I had been attracted to the narwhal (the unicorn whale, with a nine-foot
"horn" that's actually a tooth), but I soon began to hear
more and more about the walrus. I decided to film walruses in their
natural habitat, something no one had ever done. But even though I expected
a challenge, I didn't realize just how difficult a place to work the
Arctic is. I quickly found out: surface conditions were well below zero,
and water temperatures hovered at 29 degrees Fahrenheit. On top of that,
the walruses I came to film spent most of their time underneath an eight-foot-thick
canopy of ice! Because of the extreme cold, I could only stay underwater
for about 40 minutes on each dive. I had to make that footage count.
The windows of opportunity were few and far between.
The hardest part was figuring out how to get close enough to take the
walruses' picture. It meant that I had to get to know the animal and the
intricacies of its behavior. I began to investigate how I could film walruses
in the water.
The Inuit immediately told me: "Don't!" They warned that
if a walrus were to come up to me while I was in the water, I must get
out as quickly as possible. The Inuit spoke of the aggressive behavior
walrus exhibit when hunted. The translation goes something like this:
The angry walruses take to the water as a group and charge, penetrating
the bottom of the wooden canoes with slashing tusks and leaving the
Inuit to bail furiously. And although walruses mostly eat clams as their
regular food source, scientists know that walruses will eat the occasional
seal. This has been proven by eye-witness accounts and evidence of seals
found in the stomach contents of walruses. The Inuit thought that, like
a seal, a diver could also get grabbed -- and maybe even eaten -- by
a hungry walrus.
It's a funny thing. As an underwater cinematographer, when somebody
warns you not to do something, it almost feeds your curiosity to figure
out why not. Then you start figuring out how to do it.
But I was finally convinced of the danger when I
spoke to the Arctic Bay's then Renewable Resource Officer, Glen Williams,
about swimming with walruses. He said, "Sure, you can go dive in
the water with walruses, but first let me tie a rope around you. It's
a lot less paperwork for me if I can get your body back."
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