Efforts to deter the walrus from lounging on watercraft have been largely unsuccessful.
A young arctic walrus named Freya, who first went viral in 2021 for her appearances along the coasts of Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and parts of the UK—hundreds of miles from her native habitat—has a history of sunbathing on inopportune objects.
In November of 2021, she was found sleeping on a Dutch submarine (a walrus class, funnily enough) at a North Holland naval base. The next month, she was spotted snoozing on a salmon farm cage in the Shetlands. More recently, she’s started hauling herself onto personal watercraft, sinking many of them with her bulky weight, which has been reported at around 1,300 pounds.
Kathrine Ryeng, a veterinary medicine scientist at Norway's Institute of Marine Research, told NBC News that Freya has an affinity for these boats, where she climbs up to sleep and digest her food, because they remind her of Arctic ice floes. Her home habitat may be changing due to climate change, forcing her to seek food and shelter elsewhere.
In early June, firefighters chased her out of a small boat in Kragerø, Norway, where she spent time earlier this summer. She swam right back onto the partially submerged vessel and officials were forced to let her leave on her own terms, cordoning off the area in the meantime.
In mid-July, Freya arrived in the capital of Oslo. People in every city greet her arrival with fanfare, venturing far too close to admire and photograph her. “She doesn’t get any peace,” Rune Aae, a walrus expert, was quoted telling Norwegian News Agency NTB by Euro News. Walruses sleep for up to 20 hours.
Her adoring social media public follows along, eagerly awaiting to see what she’ll do or where she’ll go next. Those who aren’t personally feeling the impact of Freya’s damage are delighted by her behavior. One Twitter user retweeted a photo set of the walrus causing mischief and captioned it “hot girl summer.” “We call BS. It was a leak, not Freya,” another user defended her. “Oh to be a walrus named Freya, laying around and sinking boats,” yet another fantasized.
But boat owners, understandably, want her gone; while she hasn’t sunken every boat she’s boarded, she’s left many of them damaged and, as reported by NBC News, owners’ insurance most likely will not cover the walrus-related damages.
In an effort to protect the local watercraft and give the walrus a safe place to rest, free from too-close prying eyes, researchers built her a floating platform of her own, where she can lounge to her heart’s content. To their dismay, she prefers the un-walrus-worthy boats, as Euro News describes them.
Biologist Kjell Isaksen warned the outlet that boat owners in the area should consider turning their boats around in their slips, with the stern facing the pier, making them less easy to access and therefore less appealing resting places to Freya, but researchers hope that she’ll get used to her new dock with time.
According to a translation from USA Today, The Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries was considering relocating Freya earlier this week. "We are in contact with professionals, including at the Institute of Marine Research, to find out how this can be done,” they wrote in a statement, but they haven’t ironed out the details or confirmed a course of action.
As of writing, a live cam was available to watch the walrus in action.
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