R.I.P. Freya… Sorry we didn’t try harder… :(

We don’t often venture into more political issues, but sometimes one simply can’t stay quiet…

A few days ago we received this newspiece from a concerned friend, and we immediately wrote a letter to Director-General Bakke-Jensen.

According to CNN’s story “Freya became a social media sensation this summer (…). The young female walrus had been spending time at the Oslo Fjord, an inlet on the country’s southeastern coast, and was seemingly unafraid of humans, unlike most walruses. Several popular videos show the walrus clambering onto small boats to sunbathe.”

CNN’s story adds “In the past week, the directorate warned the public to stay away from Freya, saying that they had observed visitors swimming with Freya, throwing objects at her, and getting dangerously close to her to take photos. “The public has disregarded the current recommendation to keep a clear distance to the walrus.”

We were particularly disturbed to read “(…), the directorate told CNN that it was considering multiple solutions, including relocating Freya out of the fjord. But “the extensive complexity of such an operation made us conclude that this was not a viable option,” Bakke-Jensen said in the news release.”

Although we specialize in moving sharks and other fish, we’re good friends with enough professionals in this field to know that moving a 590 kg walrus is absolutely a viable option. In fact, compared to some of the animals we move, this is an easy transport.

Over the last 27 years we have moved thousands of marine animals ourselves and we are well acquainted with mega-moves of whale sharks, killer whales, beluga whales, great hammerhead sharks, and even great white sharks, to name a few truly “complex” operations. All of these went flawlessly.

It was therefore with extremely heavy hearts that we heard Freya was euthanized by the Norwegian government.

This is an animal that could have been easily sedated and moved by road and/or air and/or sea to a location distant from humans and closer to its own kind.

At the risk of sounding inelegant, we were particularly surprised to hear of something like this happening in Norway, which is by no means a country lacking in financial means or intelectual capacity.

We don’t have much more to add, other that we deeply regret not acting sooner and more firmly.

How easily we humans dispose of non-human lives…

This left us saddened to the core.

🙁