Scarborough walrus: Council cancel New Year's Eve fireworks to protect visiting Thor's welfare - but he swims away before midnight

Scarborough Council cancelled an official New Year’s Eve firework display last night out of concern for the welfare of visiting Arctic walrus Thor – only for him to leave the area before midnight struck.

The council said they were ‘disappointed’ to postpone the event but that the walrus’s safety ‘took precedence’ after they were advised by wildlife charity British Divers Marine Life Association that the bangers could distress Thor.

However, onlookers later confirmed that Thor entered the sea again before midnight on New Year’s Eve and swam away from Scarborough Harbour, where he had spent the day and the previous evening resting on a slipway.

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Walruses do sometimes spend several days in one location before resuming travelling, so the adolescent male, whom it is hoped it returning to the Arctic, could reappear in Scarborough.

The walrus (photoL Stuart Ford)The walrus (photoL Stuart Ford)
The walrus (photoL Stuart Ford)

The wanderer has been seen in Hampshire, France and the Netherlands already this winter.

Hundreds of people stood behind a police cordon yesterday to watch Thor sleep, and volunteers from the Sea Life Centre checked him and pronounced him healthy.

Resident Richard Coulson, 51, told the PA news agency: “I live just round the corner from where it actually is and the traffic up and down our road – it’s just like a summer’s day, it really is absolutely teeming with cars and people. It’s amazing how much attention it’s brought.

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“It’s been well protected – it’s been cordoned off so you can’t get within 20 feet of it.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever seen one. It’s huge. We see seals quite regularly round Scarborough coastline but something of that size, it’s enormous.

“You respect nature when you see something of that size. Its tusks are bigger than my arms.”

Stuart Ford, who runs the Sealife Safari boat tour agency, told PA: “I was going down to my boat and there it was on the slipway – magnificent. It’s got to be half a ton.

“I think it’s a once-in-a-lifetime, first-time-ever thing in Scarborough to see.”