Odobenus rosmarus, the walrus, is a tusked, whiskered giant of the seal order Pinnipedia, family Odobenidae, and a carnivore of Arctic seas. Northern Inuit and other Arctic Indigenous peoples hunt it for meat, a traditional subsistence food eaten fresh, dried, aged, or fermented. Because the harvest is wild and preparation is often minimal, food-safety attention falls on parasites such as Trichinella, on clean butchering and storage, and on the environmental contaminants that concentrate in long-lived marine mammals. Harvesting runs under subsistence quotas and co-management agreements that balance community food security against conservation.