#oh and onewhale are quite literally random people who placed themselves in charge of overseeing him

[orcinus-veterinarius]

The whole Hvaldimir situation is so surreal to me. Here is a highly social animal outside of his natural environment with no others of his kind (or a stable food source), trapped in some strange purgatory between wild and tame. He's "free," yet the OneWhale team still swim with him, provide him with toys (as seen here), and encourage him to approach their boat. Having the entire ocean at his disposal hasn't cured him of the behaviors these folks would claim are proof of extreme mental distress in captive animals.

Hvaldimir was failed by his original human caregivers, and humans therefore have a responsibility to care for him. But it matters more to this group that he's "free" than if he's safe or properly cared for. He needs to be with other belugas, and the Beluga Whale Sanctuary (the only beluga sea pen in existence) is not equipped to take him. We know what the right thing to do is, and it's what would happen if he were in a country with stronger marine mammal protection laws. But it will never happen while OneWhale is in charge. A brief scan of their comments section will tell you their supporters would quite literally rather he die than be taken in by an aquarium.

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An example of how an animal can have all the space in the world and all the "freedom" they could want, yet they can still show frustration related behaviours and "head banging" behaviours.

Hvaldimir is living a life of social isolation and boredom. He's worn his teeth down to the gumline playing with "toys" - rope and buoys and fenders and everything associated with boats - the thing you should be encouraging him not to interact with so he doesn't get shredded by a boat propellor.

But One Whale is playing with Hvaldimir off the side of their boat, swimming with him and encouraging him to play with potentially dangerous items. They also say it's fine they swim with him because they need to to "move him"??? Like dang just train a recall then.

Hvaldimir should be with other whales. He's living in a frustrating limbo where his social needs are not being met and the humans that are trying to help are only being confusing and unpredictable - do they want him to wean off human interactions or are they going to keep swimming with him?

Because people value "freedom" more than this individual animal's welfare, they will continue to keep him in this confusing limbo state. Instead of getting him into qualified care and allowing him to be with his own species. Or I guess they want to put him in a "sanctuary?" But he'll still be alone so not sure how that's going to improve his welfare.