Mollusk exploitation, means harassment and a reduction in food supply for the walrus. Arctic oil exploitation can create ecological problems and the traffic involved disturbs walruses. The Pacific walrus population has been hunted to depletion and allowed to recover several times.
The Laptev Sea walrus, Odobenus rosmarus laptevi has been proposed as a third subspecies of walrus, (Chapski, 1940). This is not commonly recognized as such and is generally considered as the same as the pacific walrus.
Total world walrus population is about 250,000 animals. Pacific walrus population is more than 200,000 animals.
Odobenus rosmarus laptevi is considered as "Data Deficient". CITES lists the species as "Appendix 3".