A wandering walrus who delighted thousands in Scarborough on New Year’s Eve has continued his English tour and turned up 100 miles further up the coast.
A large crowd quickly gathered in the Northumberland town of Blyth on Monday lunchtime after a walrus was spotted resting on a wooden pontoon at the yacht club.
It is thought to be the same creature – nicknamed Thor – who stopped off in Scarborough before the new year. On Sunday he was filmed plopping back into the water and swimming off.
Thor, the first walrus ever recorded in Yorkshire, had swum round from the Hampshire coast, where he had been spotted earlier in December. Scarborough council decided to cancel its New Year’s Eve fireworks so as not to cause him distress.
Experts believe the short stopovers have been a time for the walrus to recharge its batteries. Chris Cook, of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue charity [BDMLR], said that the creature had needed “time to rest and recuperate before it continues its journey”.
This new sighting coincided with the publication of a report from BDMLR into the walrus’s visit to the Yorkshire seaside resort, which said up to 500 people came to see Thor at any one time, totalling thousands overall.
The report said most of the public were “taking photos and standing in disbelief – presumably floored by seeing a walrus!”
The BDMLR said it was alerted to Thor’s arrival in North Yorkshire at 11.30pm on 30 December by staff from Scarborough Sealife, and its initial response was: “Are you joking?”
It added: “At all times the crowd was at least 350 thick. At one point seemingly over 500 people were there, with more bodies continually appearing from all avenues, roads, and even bus trips. It is estimated that several thousand people were in attendance over the whole day, though likely far more.”
The report said: “By 4pm [on 31 December] Thor was becoming slightly more active, and at 4.30pm he sat up, turned around, and promptly slid off into the harbour.
“A cheer erupted from the crowd while BDMLR medics scrambled with radios to track which direction he went. This was assisted by some local youngsters who saw him swimming and we confirmed that he had swum off out of the harbour.”
While most visitors behaved appropriately, the report said, police had to deal with “a small handful of difficult members of public, and one person breaking cordon and entering private property attempting to access the walrus for photographs”.
