Freya - walrus

Freya was a young female walrus who appeared along the coasts of several western European countries (the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway) from October 2021 until she was killed. Freya was nicknamed after Freyja, the Norse goddess of love and beauty. The name was chosen by Frisian broadcaster Omrop Fryslân, after being spotted near Terschelling, from over 2,000 submissions from their audience.

Freya the walrus

A rare sighting in the areas where she appeared, she attracted the attention of wildlife enthusiasts and the wider public but Norwegian authorities declared Freya a threat to human safety.

On the night of August 13, 2022, Freya was killed by a team of four men from the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries. Their patrol boat arrived at the Oslo marina where the walrus was basking on a moored boat. The day before the killing the team took a video of Freya socialising with the marina staff. Then, during the night, the team shot her with a rifle, using bullets which were described as "the ammunition to be used for that type of animal". An anesthetic dart was not used as there was concern that Freya would drown. The carcass was then covered with a tarp and towed away by boat.

Freya's carcass was delivered to a laboratory of the Norwegian Veterinary Institute where it was dismembered by a health surveillance team led by Knut Madslien. Many samples of her blood and organs were taken and then the other remains were dissolved in a large vat of lye to form a gel.

A bronze sculpture of Freya, created by sculptor Astri Tonoian and titled "For Our Sins," was unveiled by campaigners in April 2023 at Kongen Marina in Oslo. According to Eric Holm a fundraising campaign was successful in raising over $25,000 (£20,000) to fund the sculpture.

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