Last week, when the Oslo Fjord was soaking up the sun and filled with swimmers, boaters and children enjoying the last week of summer vacation, there was a visitor: a 1,300-pound walrus named Freya.
This week is different. Not only have schools reopened and the weather has improved, but the walrus, a source of joy and an international celebrity, has died.
On Sunday morning, Norwegian authorities killed Freya and kept her away, saying Freya repeatedly posed too great a threat to anyone who didn’t heed her warnings. is too high,” the official added.
Environmentalists and Freya’s fans on social media said the decision to kill her was hasty and unnecessary, just three days after warnings that she might have to be put down.
However, the Norwegian Fisheries Directorate states: in a statement It was the only option after the public failed to heed the warning.
“We are confident that this was the right call,” Director General Frank Bakke Jensen said in a statement. “We respect animal welfare, but human life and safety must come first.”
The Norwegian Institute of Oceanography had considered removing Freya from the area, but “concluded that such an operation would be so complex that this was not a viable option,” Bakke-Jensen said. added.
Moving a 1,300-pound mammal isn’t easy. Freya would have needed to be tranquilized to prevent drowning and caught in a net before moving out of the area.
In Norway, Freya has dominated the news since arriving in June, with trackers, Facebook groups and near-daily articles documenting her plight.a Facebook page “Freyja the walrus—where is she now?” Since Sunday, the group, which has over 1,000 members, has been flooded with sad comments and condolences.
The country’s prime minister, Jonas Gal-Stre, said he supported the conclusion that Freya should be suppressed, telling the station: It was “the right decision”. Freya’s body is currently being examined, according to the Fisheries Department. What happens after that is unknown.
For at least two years, Freya made appearances off the British coast and various other European countries, including the Netherlands and Denmark.
62-year-old Trine Tandberg, who runs a children’s theater in Oslo, said: “Now she came to a gorgeous overcrowded beach and died. She followed closely the news reports about Freya. said it does.
“She hasn’t done anything to anyone,” Tandberg said. “That’s why a lot of us are really, really angry about this whole thing.”
Oslo Fjord, where Freya spent time, is a densely populated area including Oslo, the capital of Norway. About 2 million people live in this area and the population is just over 5 million.
Walruses are social animals and rarely go anywhere alone. That may be why Freya likes to be with people and was looking for lively places.
Fredrik Maia, a marine biologist at the World Wildlife Fund in Norway, said he was “surprised at how quickly the decision was made” to kill her. “They should have been more patient.”
Experts say one option would have been to control the crowds that went to see Freya, keep the area off-limits, or fine those who got too close. According to Dan Jarvis, director of welfare and conservation at the UK-based charity British Divers Marine Life Rescue, other possibilities include making loud noises in the water or being caught by a predator. It is said that he would sometimes spread his scent to keep her away.
But these choices weren’t easy. Deterrent sounds and smells can also disturb other animals in the fjord and scare them away, Maia says.
Experts in other countries Freya has visited over the past two years have expressed disbelief in her fate.
“Norway very quickly chose the last option,” said Annemarie van den Berg, director of Dutch maritime rescue organization SOS Dolfijn.
“Freya didn’t stay in one place for long,” said Van den Berg. When Dutch authorities dealt with Freya in the fall of 2021, she said, their focus was on keeping people away from animals.
Freya may look cute napping in the sunshine, but van den Berg adds, “She’s a mammal, so it’s dangerous.”
Norway’s Fisheries Directorate has repeatedly told people to stay away from Freya, but that advice was largely ignored, a spokesman said last week. warned that walruses could be killed.
A spokesman for the Directorate General said swimmers had gotten very close to the animals during her final days, taking selfies and sometimes throwing things at them. However, despite the warnings, no human casualties have been reported.
Marine biologist Myhre has placed responsibility for Freya’s fate on those who will not heed calls to keep their distance. No one would take a selfie next to a 1,300-pound bull, Myhre said, adding that “walruses shouldn’t do the same.”
The timing of the killing has also been questioned. Summer holidays in Norway were coming to an end, and crowds were likely to dwindle as the rains returned to the area.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, there are approximately 225,000 walruses in the wild. They usually live in the icy waters of Canada, Norway, Russia, Greenland and Alaska.They’ve lost part of their normal habitat as ice sheets melt with climate change.
Jarvis, head of British Divers Marine Life Rescue, acknowledged the threat such wildlife pose to humans, but said that alone was no reason to kill Freya.
“We’re not going to kill all great whites just because they might attack someone at some point,” Jarvis said.
Last year, Jarvis said, Wally, another walrusHe spent about six weeks in a crowded area by boat off the South West of England. In an attempt to stop Wally from damaging the ship, local authorities provided him with a platform to lie down on.
Glenn Murphy, who owns a boating and fishing business in the Oslo Fjord, said local reactions to Freya’s fate were mixed.
“It seemed to me that she was looking for a companion,” Murphy said.