The waves are high about the planned reserve for Hvaldimir and other tame whales. The plans are to block off the entire Kommagfjord on Sørøya in Hammerfest municipality. The chairmanship of Hammerfest has recently refused to give moral support to the project. They will wait until it is better investigated. Hvaldimir has previously been in captivity in Russia, and appeared in Finnmark in April 2019. Since then, he has moved south along the coast, and recently to Møre and Romsdal. The initiators of the reserve believe Hvaldimir risks being euthanized because he is bothering salmon farmers. Now they want to create the world’s first reserve of its kind. But Norwegian professional circles and the farming industry are strongly critical: The farmers’ association Sjømat Norge reacts to being referred to as a threat to Hvaldimir, and says they have no desire to have him euthanized. Professor and whale researcher Audun Rikardsen believes it is impossible to block off the entire fjord with a net. Currents and tides mean that a net will break, he says. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority and the Directorate of Fisheries believe that Hvaldimir is a wild animal that will not fare well if he is locked up. They believe it is unrealistic to take care of all the world’s domesticated whales in reserves of the planned type. Hvaldimir likes to seek out people and attracts many spectators where he appears. Photo: Inge Wegge / One Whale Rescue for tame whales It is the organization Norwegian Whale Reserve (NWR) that plans the reserve. Katrine Næss on the board emphasizes that there is not a place for just Hvaldimir. Næss says it is urgent to create an alternative to whales that do not fare well in captivity, and that cannot be released into the wild either. Among the initiators of the reserve is OneWhale, an organization created to take care of Hvaldimir. The head of OneWhale is filmmaker Regina Crosby. Crosby fears that Hvaldimir’s penchant for farms will be his destiny: He could do harm – and then be euthanized. – I have heard people tell me that someone might kill him without permission. That message has been repeated over three years. Crosby points out that the walrus Freya was shot without the public being informed of any proceedings or decisions. – As long as the Directorate of Fisheries does not give any written guarantee that they will not grant a felling permit, we will always be concerned. Regina Crosby in OneWhale has close contact with Hvaldimir, and fears that his human-loving nature will become his destiny. Photo: Inge Wegge / One Whale Error regarding felling permit In the documents that NWR has sent to Hammerfest municipality, it is stated that a felling permit has been applied for twice for Hvaldimir. But that is not true, news’s investigations show. It is the Directorate of Fisheries that decides such cases. Olav Lekve in the directorate has checked the archives in response to questions from news, but has not found any applications. When news confronts OneWhale about the case, we learn that the first case concerned a private person in Trøndelag. He had called the municipality after Hvaldimir was blamed for damaging a water supply. In addition, Regina Crosby says that she has met people from breeding facilities who wanted to shoot Hvaldimir. – They said they didn’t need a permit, but were allowed to kill any animal that threatened the farm. – Had they applied for permission? – I cannot speak for them. But they told me they didn’t need to apply, because they have the right to kill animals that pose a threat. – Where did this happen? – A breeding facility in northern Norway. It’s not a good idea for me to document it. We do not blame the salmon farmers, it is not their responsibility to take care of Hvaldimir for the next 30-40 years. What we want to do is solve the problem for the whale and for the farm, says Crosby. Hvaldimir follows a boat. Breeders say he takes care of the propeller and does no harm. Photo: Inge Wegge / OneWhale – Most entertainment Professor and whale researcher Audun Rikardsen believes OneWhale creates a distorted image of conflict between the breeders and Hvaldimir. – I have spoken to many people who work at breeding facilities who have had visits from him, and my experience is that there is generally no problem. They see it more as entertainment, says Rikardsen. He refers to Mowi’s plant in Sørfold, which was visited by Hvaldimir almost every day for half a year. – They thought it was sad when he left. They had a lot of entertainment. Kai Robert Rubbås at Mowi confirms what Rikardsen says. – He was no problem for us at all, says Rubbås. – He found his own food. It is possible that he stressed the salmon occasionally, but it was very rarely, if at all. – The only problem we had was the audience. Lots of people came to greet him. There were often many people in the evening and at night. Rubbås’s colleagues at Mowi in Averøy also reported “zero concern” when Hvaldimir came there in October this year. – Taking good care of him Øyvind Haram in the industry’s own organization Sjømat Norge believes that the breeders have shown that they care about Hvaldimir and take care of him wherever he comes. – There is in no way any desire to kill Hvaldimir. It will be completely silly claims, he says to news. Haram also draws a parallel to the walrus Freya, and says it had to be killed because people could not relate to a wild animal. – Many of those who work in our industry have more understanding of a creature that lives in the sea. They have made sure that he is well, and they have dealt with the authorities, says Haram. – Must be allowed to live like a wild whale The Norwegian Food Safety Authority believes that Hvaldimir is a wild animal that is doing well. Torunn Knævelsrud, section head for animal welfare, is in line with what the Directorate of Fisheries has told news previously. – We are more concerned that wild animals should be allowed to be wild and live in the open, says Knævelsrud. If the animal is in danger, or if it threatens other interests, it is more correct to euthanize it in a proper way, she believes. Torunn Knævelsrud in the Norwegian Food Safety Authority does not think Hvaldimir will get better if he is locked up. Photo: The Norwegian Food Safety Authority – After all, the animal must have a life worth living, and whales require large areas. It is difficult to imitate a natural habitat for such an animal. Knævelsrud points out that there are many kinds of animals in captivity that are no longer considered safe or correct. – I think it is difficult to be firm about such things. But if we are to create some form of nature reserve for all whales and dolphins in captivity, we will have to seize quite a lot of areas. That doesn’t sound very realistic to me. Impossible to block the fjord The Kommagfjord is almost 900 meters wide at the mouth, and there are strong tidal currents in the area. Audun Rikardsen believes it is completely unrealistic to block off the entire fjord with a seine. – It is almost impossible to prevent birds, porpoises and larger fish from sticking. To avoid this, you must have fine-meshed yarn – somewhat the same as the salmon cages have. If they have such small meshes, there will be so much power and so much catch when the tide goes in and out. Dirt gets on it, it has to be washed all the time. Eventually it will crack, because there will be so much power on the net, says the professor. Professor Audun Rikardsen believes that Hvaldimir should be a free soul, and says that it is not possible to block off an entire fjord anyway. Photo: Ronald Hole Fossåskaret / news Katrine Næss in NWR tells news that they have already received an offer from a company that makes nuts, but will not say which company it is. In the documents sent to Hammerfest municipality, it appears that it is Mørenot. Mørenot in Hammerfest says the offer was delivered by someone who no longer works there, and cannot answer what kind of network is planned. news has asked several managers at the head office of Mørenot in Ålesund. Lars Tor Silnes is head of the purse seine department, which has previously supplied nets for use in whale research. He is sure that he would have known about it if the company had worked on designing a net for a whale reserve – and which could withstand the strain in the Kommagfjord. Can be truly free Regina Crosby’s hope is that a whale sanctuary will give the whales a better life with more room to romp than they have in captivity, and at best prepare them for a wild life in the sea. This also applies to Hvaldimir. – In a reserve, he can unlearn the behavior associated with salmon farming. The ultimate goal is to release him with wild beluga whales and let him be truly free. – Has it happened before? – Yes, people do this with dolphins and whales elsewhere in the world, she says. – We do not want Hvaldimir to live his whole life in the reserve – or die in a breeding facility.
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– Nonsense that we want to kill the beluga whale Hvaldimir – news Troms and Finnmark
