Tourists on board a whale watching boat were greeted by a pleasant surprise: an adolescent walrus posing for photos.
RÚV reports that the sighting occurred near Húsavík harbour yesterday afternoon. Seals are not uncommon in the area, but walruses are. This was apparently of little concern to the young walrus who swam up alongside Hrólfur Þórhallsson’s whale watching boat.
“He was not at all bashfull with us,” Hrólfur told reporters. “We was right at the boat, spending a lot of time above water. We sailed alongside him for about 20 minutes, and he was always close to the surface. The passengers were pretty surprised, and started taking photos.”
The walrus swam away soon thereafter, and has not been spotted since.
Despite not being a native species, there have been at least five walrus sightings around Iceland over the summer. Two sightings – one in Seyðisfjörður and another in the southeast – may have even been the same animal. This latest walrus, though, Hrólfur believes to have been an adolescent, so there may be more walruses hiding out somewhere on Iceland’s coast.
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