On Thursday, The United States Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that around 35,000 Pacific walrus has come ashore last week on a remote northwest coast. The officials have termed it to be a September phenomenon linked to declining sea ice due to climate change.

On September 2, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration flew near Point Lay, Alaska and took the pictures of the animals. Experts shared that walrus are present in herds there and stampede can take place if they terrified by an airplane, hunter or polar bear.

Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Andrea Medeiros said that the airplane made sure that the walrus are not disturbed. In 2007, walrus were found in large number on the US side of the Chukchi Sea and they then returned in 2009 and 2011.

In 2014, around 35,000 walrus were photographed north of Point Lay. Walrus can dive to feed on clams, snails and other food items on the bottom, but they cannot swim properly. In past few years, sea ice has decline considerably and the water level is more than the diving range of adult walrus.

After a stampede incident in September 2009 at Alaska’s Icy Cape, the carcasses of more than 130 majorly young walruses were found. Point Lay is an Inupiat Eskimo village, which is 700 miles northwest of Anchorage and 300 miles southwest of Barrow.