When the blubber meets the road.
Wally the walrus captivated the globe this past spring after becoming the first of his kind to visit the shores of Ireland and the southern UK. However, it now appears as if the Arctic asylum-seeker has overstayed his welcome: Wildlife authorities are attempting to deport the behemoth sea beast for destroying boats in Cornwall’s Scilly Islands, where he resides.
“We are getting quite a few people asking us why Wally can’t be taken home,” Blue Planet Society’s John Hourston told the Metro of the marine mammal’s destructive stopover. “He is causing a fair amount of mayhem and the novelty of having him around might be wearing thin.”
Indeed, the 4-year-old walrus — who is thought to have inadvertently immigrated to Western Europe on an iceberg — is reportedly sinking smaller boats by lounging on top of them for days with his 2,000-pound frame. The vessels that don’t get capsized are often rendered useless for days afterward, which is costing boat owners time and money.
“That walrus needs to go,” posted one beleaguered boat owner on social media. “I don’t think visitors realize that the islanders spend a lot of money on their boats, some up to tens of thousands of pounds.”
Not only that, but Wally’s escapades could prevent “emergency response vessels from being immediately operational or cause serious injury or worse if he capsizes a boat with people on board,” said British Divers Marine Life Rescue in a statement to the BBC.
In order to mitigate further damage, authorities have decided to cut the critter’s UK tour short.
“It is becoming a really big issue in that harbor and we need to do something to discourage him from being in it,” said Dan Jarvis of BDMLR, whose team has mulled everything from implementing barriers around boats to blaring off-putting noises above and below the water.
“It is hoped that by discouraging him from being around the inhabited islands, he will choose a more secluded wild site, and that he will soon be rested enough to continue back north to his native Arctic,” he said.
Nonetheless the wildlife rescuer refuses to try and capture and relocate the blubbery buccaneer, which he deems an “extremely difficult and potentially dangerous option for the walrus and for any handlers involved.”
If successful in his deterrent attempts, this could mark the end of an epic journey that saw the walrus travel 2,500 miles along the coast of Western Europe, including Spain, over the last four months, the BBC reported.
Wally’s not the first pinniped to wreak havoc on watercraft. Two enterprising sea lions made headlines last year after commandeering a sailboat in Washington State.
In the most infamous incident in 1990, the oceanic opportunists colonized San Francisco’s Pier 39 in 1990, much to the chagrin of local boat owners.
