BS: Icelandic POV on Valli the Walrus

Subject: Valli the Walrus (Kjarninn website)
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Sep 21 - 09:36 PM

The English-speaking news media call him Wally the Walrus,
and have been tracking his movements since March,
as he is a long ways away from any colonies of walruses.

But in Iceland, where he last came to shore,
he is Valli the 'rostungur'.

21 September 2021
Walrus visits to Iceland are very rare ...
the animal's natural home is on the edge of the ice shelf in the Arctic Ocean.
Calling him a villain and a destroyer ('dólg'), as some media outlets have done, has gone too far.
"He was resting. That was all he was doing," says Edda Elísabet Magnúsdóttir, marine and behavioral ecologist. When he messed about with boats in shallow water, it showed first and foremost the distress he was in. "Perhaps we interpret this as rude behavior -- someone boards our boat uninvited. But he is a wild animal in a completely unfamiliar environment, finding a place to rest. He is like an alien there: juvenile, lacking anyone older with him to give a signal about where to go and what to do."
'Valli' is, in Edda's opinion, a young, immature male, no older than six or seven years. He has now left the British Isles, is headed north, and is taking a short break from his travels in Iceland. He could now relocate to Svalbard [in Norway], or to the east coast of Greenland.
Walruses thrive at the edge of the Arctic ice shelf and in shallow waters. Although they are great swimmers, deep diving is not their strong point. They want to be able to dive from the ice into the sea in order to root for mussels and shellfish on the sea floor.

During the age of human settlement in Iceland, walruses were a common sight, mainly in West Iceland and in the Western fjords. A DNA study of mitochondria from 34 teeth, bones and skulls of walruses, was the subject of a scientific article by a group of scientists from Iceland, Denmark, and the Netherlands. The bones turned out to be from 800 years to 9,000 years old, and were found in Iceland. This recent study confirmed for the first time that Iceland had a special population of walruses which did not live long.
"It is confirmed that there was a special Icelandic stock here and that it came to an end shortly before or after the initial settlement by humans, probably primarily due to overfishing," said Hilmar J. Mamquist, a biologist and one of the article's authors. "These results support the theories of Bergsveinn Birgisson, Bjarni F. Einarson and others, that the demand for walruses and other marine animals may have been the main driving force behind the [human] settlement of Iceland [. . .] The extinction of the Icelandic walrus population could thus be the oldest example of extinction due to overfishing, for the teeth, skins, and fish oil of walruses were a valuable commodity in the Viking Age."
Every place name in Iceland that comes from 'whaling' wherever it may be in the country, does not seem to be related to whales, but rather to walruses. Other place names have long indicated that walruses were common here: An example of this, in Reykjanes, is the place name Rosmhvalanes, as 'rosmhvalur' is an archaic name for a walrus. "These names indicate that walruses have come there regularly," according to Eddi Elísabet, who also says, "Habitat destruction is a threat to them. They are already sustaining enormous losses of habitats, and they are beginning to be severely restricted."

Even during the winter, there is less ice, and the walruses go ashore more often, and often have to travel very long distances to get food. This can have catastrophic consequences. They not only go ashore, they even go up on cliffs, and then have trouble returning to the sea. They unintentionally kill themselves, falling off the cliffs, "because there they are in a very unusual situation."

Edda finds it "incredibly remarkable" that Valli has gone all the way to Ireland and even further. "First and foremost it shows us the swimming ability of these animals. I have full faith that he will find his way. Get back home. I hope he continues north, and finds a coastal area off Svalbard or Greenland. Now the winter is ahead of him, and he needs to find some good feeding grounds."

Walruses learn from each other, and today, of course, it is no longer in their memory to go to the shores of Iceland. It has been dozens, if not hundreds, of generations since walruses had a regular presence here. But can we expect more walruses to come here in the future?
"That would not surprise me," says Edda. "When their native ice shelf is breaking up, melting, then they need to find new areas. This is how the distribution of animals develops. If the environment changes, then they need to find new areas."

The preceding is mostly Google Translate. The original article can be found online in its Icelandic language.

Subject: RE: BS: Icelandic POV on Valli the Walrus
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 24 Sep 21 - 04:17 AM

https://www.ruv.is/frett/2021/09/21/worried-wally-watchers-welcome-word-of-whereabouts?fbclid=IwAR0SSagQEb79t3U1gBscHT6-8p30PwGCzkTObWO4qHZOYHy6F86elPDNKrk
From RUV Iceland's, Facebook page.

Subject: RE: BS: Icelandic POV on Valli the Walrus
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 24 Sep 21 - 11:19 AM

Let's try this link.

(By the way, I don't know how i could have submitted a BS thread,
labelled as BS, that popped up to the music section . . . )


English-language story from an Icelandic-language media channel, 21 September 2021

Subject: RE: BS: Icelandic POV on Valli the Walrus
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Sep 21 - 10:01 PM

From Iceland to Norway:
the following link is to a Norwegian news webpage.
Abundant photos of the "gallivanting" "terror-hvalross."


In Norwegian : 20 September 2021


Moderators,
could this please go to BS
where I tried to place it from the beginning?
I don't know what I did wrong.

Subject: RE: BS: Icelandic POV on Valli the Walrus
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Sep 21 - 10:18 PM

thank you much!

Subject: RE: BS: Icelandic POV on Valli the Walrus
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Sep 21 - 08:39 PM

The post from 27 September contains a link to
a Norwegian journalism update on Valli / Wally.

Having provided the link to the Norwegian,
I thought the least I could do was what was done in the OP,
and offer up a translation from Norwegian to English.
The following is based largely on Google Translate with a few touchups.


20 September 2021
from 'nettnord', byline Baard Baldur
(which if you ask me sounds like a pseudonym ... )

Headline: Summer holidays:
Norway's tourist-walrus forgot the COVID=19 restrictions...

With so many of us (humans) staying home,
Wally the Walrus has other ideas.
The four-year-old walrus spent the month of March traveling and swimming.
By way of making a pit stop during his swim,
he takes advantage of a motorboat anchored nearby,
loads his 800-Kilogram mass inside the boat, and falls asleep.
Sometimes for several days at a stretch.

Today he is an international celebrity, having gone on a solo tour of roughly 2,100 miles.

After initial sightings on the southwest coast of Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, France, Bilbao in northern Spain, and the Isles of Scilly, Wally left the scene of the vandalized boats, whether merely damaged or capsized and sunk altogether.
The sighting of the walrus in Bilbao is believed to be the longest that this area has ever viewed a walrus.


Maritime experts are not sure where the walrus came from, but walruses have been seen as far as Svalbard -- a group of islands between Norway and the North Pole.
Melanie Croce, of Seal Rescue Ireland, which includes marine mammals such as walruses, said that the Arctic ice shelf is likely to disappear due to melting, and this causes walruses to look for new habitats. And being a semi-aquatic animal -- it can sleep up to twenty hours at a time on an ice floe -- playing volleyball with a series of boats shows great resourcefulness.

"He is absolutely adorable, very attractive, and very naughty, and most people will never see a walrus in the wild in their entire lives," says [Melanie Croce], continuing: "He needs to sleep and eat so that he has enough reserves of energy and feeding to come back home, to the north, which we all really hope for. We want him to return to his Arctic habitat."
In the meantime, Where is/was Wally?
We have a photograph album here.

Maureen Houlihan, five, with her father, discovered the walrus off the coast of Valencia Island, about 2,000 miles from the walrus's Arctic home, resting on some rocks. (County Kerry?)
With only 22,000 walruses left in the world, this is the first time walruses have been sighted in Ireland since 1999, and this is a worrying indicator of climate change.

An 'Absolute First" for Tenby, Cornwall, was the sighting of Wally the Walrus on shore. Ten years ago, in the same month, Cornwall first sighted killer whales in the same location.

Then Wally was found sunning himself in Sables d'Olonne, on the west coast of France. It was the first walrus sighting in the area for fifty years. The French gendarmes who tried to get Wally away from a dinghy described the mammalian vandal as "uncooperative."
From there to Bilbao by the Nervian river delta, in June.

In the location of the seaside resort of Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales, Wally embarked on a course of vandalism and destruction.
It appeared that he had first overturned a dinghy, before attempting to get on board a fishing boat in the harbor, which stopped the locals on the trail.
"He put his flippers straight on the deck," said beachgoer Martin Thomas, 36. "He's a huge creature." Wally soon became Tenby's biggest tourist attraction. Local businesses, in creating Wally memorabilia, even named a local beer after the new celebrity.
During the Easter weekend, sightseers were seen violating COVID-19 restrictions -- tourists came from as far as Essex and Leeds -- while Wally was observed, balancing a starfish on his nose, and trying to climb out of the water on all sorts of things. Because of his small tusks, Wally was identified as a youngster. Cleopatra Brown of Welsh Marine Life Rescue was shocked by his size. "He was the size of a cow."
April: after disappearing for several days, Wally returns. The public is warned that anyone who troubles the animal can be convicted of a criminal offense under the Wildlife and Rural Act of 1981.
The mammal fled Tenby harbor after some people threw objects at him, targeted him with drones, and used fish to attract him to come closer.
RSPCA Inspector Keith Hogben says:
"We're all used to social distancing in the last year -- and we have to practice social distancing with this walrus now." Wally, however, prefers to sleep at the lifeboat station.

Summer 2020: The Isles of Scilly
Wally spends a month and a half around the Isles of Scilly on the Cornish coast. He was pictured vandalizing several boats, and an "action plan" was set up to prevent more damage. The population reported that many vessels had been sunk (including deflated dinghies) since Wally's arrival.
"No one in this county has ever been in this situation before, we do not have such large animals, and it is very disturbing," said Don Jarvis of British Divers Marine Life Rescue.

August: County Cork, Ireland
Wally the Walrus continues to harass boaters in Ireland. 38-year-old plumber Paul O. Reagan captured footage of Wally in Moore Bay in Cork. Before that, Wally was sighted in County Waterford, in southeastern Ireland, where he boarded a boat belonging to a local merchant. Patrick Shields, general manager of the five-star Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore, joked: "With COVID-19, we do not have many international visitors this summer. So to host someone from Norway is so exciting."
A few days later, Wally capsized a boat belonging to a distillery in Clonacilly, West Cork. In the Daily Mail, the boat's owner, Adam Collier, said: "We are delighted to help the wonderful sea creature, and we really hope Wally can go home to his own family."

Walruses can dive up to 90 meters, and stay underwater for 30 minutes at a time. Seal Rescue Ireland hopes he will use the pontoon they have built for him, in order to rest and to gain strength for the long journey home. "We hope he will continue his journey, so he is going in the right direction now," said Melanie Croce.

Subject: RE: BS: Icelandic POV on Valli the Walrus
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 Sep 21 - 11:54 AM

An attempt to link to a translation of an Icelandic-language summary
of Wally/Valli's flight from justice, in a series of home videos.
Let's see if it works.


Wally the Walrus and his walk on the wild side

... no, it doesn't. Darn.

Subject: RE: BS: Icelandic POV on Valli the Walrus
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 Sep 21 - 09:15 PM

Here is a photograph of Wally the Walrus
balancing a starfish on his nose.

Subject: RE: BS: Icelandic POV on Valli the Walrus
From: keberoxu
Date: 10 Oct 21 - 10:49 PM

The OP on this thread quoted a scientific study of
bones recovered, from Iceland,
belonging to walruses.

Here is more on that study,
with interviews of the scientists who wrote the published article.

interviews with Morton Tange Olsen and Xenia Keighley

Subject: RE: BS: Icelandic POV on Valli the Walrus
From: keberoxu
Date: 02 Dec 21 - 06:58 PM

And now there is a juvenile female walrus being sighted
(mid-November 2021)
on the Northumberland coast,
no doubt after feeding on the plentiful marine life.
Like Wally the juvenile male,
"Freya" has a massive body
and tiny short tender little tusks.

Subject: RE: BS: Icelandic POV on Valli the Walrus
From: Thompson
Date: 03 Dec 21 - 08:56 AM

This is turning into a leviathan romcom!

Subject: RE: BS: Icelandic POV on Valli the Walrus
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Dec 21 - 08:16 PM

True enough, Thompson.
Now if only the darned things could talk,
they could tell us where their home colonies of walruses are.
That's the secret that no one can uncover.
Did these two lone walruses come from
Greenland?
Arctic islands to the north of Norway?
or . . . northernmost Russia?

The scientists, researchers, and authors published in articles
referenced in earlier posts on this thread,
describing walruses desperate for food who search ONSHORE
and get themselves into all sorts of desperate scrapes on land --
like plunging off of ocean cliffs --
are citing reports from Russia.

We know the lone walruses did not come from Iceland,
where the Vikings hunted them to extinction centuries ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Icelandic POV on Valli the Walrus
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Dec 21 - 08:56 PM

And then there is the Pacific walrus.
Not relevant to the romcom starring Wally/Valli and Freya,
who prowl the Atlantic shores and icecaps.

Pacific walruses populate Russia's Chukchi peninsula,
across the Bering Sea from Alaska's Seward peninsula.