‘Small handful of difficult members of public’ criticised for Thor the Walrus conduct in Scarborough

A charity has criticised “difficult” members of the public after revealing several thousand people gathered to get a glimpse of Thor the walrus during his weekend break-in Scarborough. Huge crowds flocked to the seaside town after the giant marine mammal unexpectedly appeared in the harbour on Friday (December 30).

New Year’s Eve fireworks were cancelled and police were called to cordon off the area where the celebrity walrus had decided to take a rest during his trip back to the Arctic. Animal welfare charities monitored the adolescent male on the slipway as visitors travelled from across the country - and even as far away as France - to take photos.

It was the first time in living memory the species had visited Yorkshire and Thor is believed to have travelled 3,000 miles via Canada, France and the Netherlands. Thor left Yorkshire to return to his Arctic home on Saturday afternoon (December 31) after spending the weekend delighting local residents and tourists.

But an incident report by the British Divers Marine Life Rescue, whose volunteers monitored Thor, has now revealed poor behaviour by some of those in attendance. They revealed one person was caught breaking the police cordon and trespassing onto private property to photograph the walrus.

Thor was also disturbed by loud cars being driven along the seafront with flashing lights and there were also reports of general crowd control and traffic difficulties. The BDMLR said ‘several thousand’ people - including coach parties - descended on the town and the crowd was never less than 300 deep.

The report stated: “At 11.30pm on 30 December, Scarborough Sealife reported to BDMLR that a walrus was hauled out at Scarborough.The initial response was ‘are you joking?!’

"Understandably the unusual visitor attracted attention and the Police Response Sergeant could not do enough to facilitate Thor being kept safe, including being immediately contactable should their help be needed. Scarborough Police officers and PCSOs were on regular patrol throughout the entire response and their help included having to deal with a small handful of difficult members of the public, and one person breaking cordon and entering private property attempting to access the Walrus for photographs.

"Thor demonstrated some natural male behaviour over the evening and decided after a few hours that his rest against the wooden structure in the middle of the harbour slipway had come to an end, he made his way down the slope.