The social creature seemed attracted to people and they were attracted to him. But Hvaldimir’s story seems to be sad. wearing a tight strap stamped “St. Petersburg equipment”, the media went crazy, talking about a “spy whale”. Because it appears to be trained and used to humans, it doesn’t do well in the wild and is threatened by salmon farmers, conservationists said, as it spends its time by the nets, eating fish attracted to the salmon feed and bothering fishermen. . Whale map of Norway But now his luck could change. A British businessman was so moved by his story that he is now trying to raise funds to create the world’s first offshore whale sanctuary in the Norwegian fjords. Work on the 500-acre reserve, near the town of Hammerfest, is due to start early next year. Former property tycoon Adam Thorpe founded the charity OneWhale, which currently funds the monitoring and protection of Hvaldimir and has funded studies enabling the sanctuary. He teamed up with director Regina Crosby, who said he had to act after he went to film the distressed whale. “Everyone has fallen in love with this whale from viral YouTube videos,” Thorpe said. “I read about him in National Geographic in 2019 and found it disturbing. She is clearly tamed and has a great personality. I thought, well, if we could create a sanctuary or a sanctuary, that protects the whale from boat traffic, it means he can fish for himself and live as natural a life as possible.” Thorpe has permission from the Norwegian government to offset the fjord, which he owns, if he can raise the funds – £250,000 to secure the nets to secure the site, create basic accommodation for staff who will stay nearby and also monitors residents. as a veterinary laboratory to provide care. The reserve would be large enough to accommodate a number of human-trained whales accustomed to captivity. The project hopes to allow the whales to hunt on their own and interact with each other and eventually be released back into the wild. Thorpe believes this would be better than some proposals by zoologists, that whales like Hvaldimir be kept in a tank in captivity. “By telling the story of this whale we can also provide a reserve for other ex-captive whales,” he said. “There are no salmon farms in the reserve and no boats going in and out, eliminating the risk of propeller injury.” But while the project started as a small business, with Thorpe and Crosby trying to protect Hvaldimir, it has grown into a larger not-for-profit project, with the world’s leading scientists, vets and conservationists on the board, working to create of the refuge. It has even attracted the interest of Netflix, which is in talks with Crosby about a film chronicling the whale and its journey from captivity, to danger at sea, to a sanctuary. It is feared that the whale could be euthanized if it continues to disturb salmon farmers. Norway has a history of doing this. the government recently came under fire for euthanizing Freya the walrus after it attracted crowds of tourists near a fjord. “We have to keep an eye on Hvaldimir and make sure he doesn’t disturb the salmon farms where he likes to hang out,” Thorpe explained. “One of his past jobs was clearly messing with boats and propellers. And so one of his tricks is to wrap a rope around the propeller. Such things, while cute, are quite frustrating for salmon farms. If something happened at the salmon farm and they were blamed for it, then they would euthanize him immediately, they would have no qualms about it.”
