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The New York Times -- A Walrus Named Freya Showed Up in Norway. Did She Have to Die? By Claire Moses Aug. 16, 2022 -- Three days after issuing a warning, the authorities put down the 1,300-pound marine mammal. Critics said that the decision was unnecessary.

Last week, as the Oslo Fjord was basking in the sunshine and full of swimmers, boaters and children enjoying their last week of summer vacation, it had a visitor: a 1,300-pound walrus named Freya.

This week is different. Not only has school started up again and the weather turned, but the walrus, who had been a source of delight and had become something of an international celebrity, is dead.

On Sunday morning, the Norwegian authorities killed Freya, saying that she posed too big a threat to humans who failed to listen to repeated warnings to stay away from her. Moving her out of the area was “too high risk,” officials added.

Environmentalists and Freya’s fans on social media said that the decision to kill her, just three days after the warning that she might have to be put down, was hasty and unnecessary.

But the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries said in a statement that it was the only option after the public did not heed the warnings.

The Norwegian Institute of Marine Research had considered moving Freya out of the area, Mr. Bakke-Jensen added, but “the extensive complexity of such an operation made us conclude that this was not a viable option.”



The country’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Store, said he supported the conclusion that Freya should be put down, telling a broadcaster that it was “the right decision.” Freya’s body will now be examined, according to the Directorate of Fisheries. It’s unclear what will happen to it afterward.

Freya made appearances off the coasts of Britain and various other European countries, including the Netherlands and Denmark, for at least two years.




Walruses are social animals and rarely venture somewhere alone, which may be why Freya seemed to like being around people and why she had sought out a busy area.


One option would have been to control the crowds who went to see Freya, cordoning off the area or fining people who ventured too close, experts said. Other possibilities included making loud underwater noises or spreading the scent of predators to deter her from the area, according to Dan Jarvis, director of welfare and conservation at British Divers Marine Life Rescue, a charity based in England.



“Freya never stayed in the same place too long,” Ms. van den Berg said. When the Dutch authorities dealt with Freya in the fall of 2021, she said, they focused on keeping people away from the animal.


While Freya may seem cute when napping in the sunshine, Ms. van den Berg added, “She’s a mammal and therefore dangerous.”

The Norwegian fisheries directorate had repeatedly told people to stay away from Freya, but the advice had mostly been ignored, a spokesman said last week. The authorities warned that the walrus faced the prospect of being killed if they could not persuade onlookers to stay away.

Swimmers had approached very close to the animal in her final days, taking selfies and sometimes even throwing things at her, a spokesman for the directorate said. Despite the warnings, however, no human injuries were reported.

Mr. Myhre, the marine biologist, put the responsibility for Freya’s fate on those who would not listen to calls to keep their distance. People wouldn’t take a selfie next to a 1,300-pound bull, Mr. Myhre said, adding, “You shouldn’t do that with a walrus, either.”

The timing of the killing has also been questioned. Summer vacation in Norway was coming to an end, and rain has moved back into the area, so the crowds were likely to ebb.

There are roughly 225,000 walruses in the wild, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature. They generally live in ice-covered waters in Canada, Norway and Russia, and in Greenland and Alaska. They are losing some of their usual habitat as ice sheets melt because of climate change.

Mr. Jarvis, the director at British Divers Marine Life Rescue, acknowledged the threat posed to humans by such wild animals, but, he said, that was not enough reason to kill Freya.



Claire Moses is a writer for The Morning based in London. Before joining The Times in 2017, she worked at BuzzFeed News and other news outlets. She is originally from the Netherlands. @clairemoses

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/16/wo...