Walrus attacks and sinks Russian Navy boat in Arctic Ocean
- Crew was able to escape safely without harming animal, which was trying to protect its calves
A Russian Navy vessel out on a science expedition was attacked and may have been sunk, not by an enemy ship, but by a walrus protecting its calves, officials say.
The joint expedition by Russia’s Northern Fleet and Geographical Society was sailing in the Franz Josef Land archipelago in the Arctic Ocean last week when the incident occurred.
Russian military officials said in a statement that the vessel was attacked as researchers were making a landing at Cape Heller on Wilczek Land, an island on the archipelago.
“A group of researchers had to flee from a female walrus who attacked an expedition boat when protecting her cub,” the Russian military statement reads, according to the Barents Observer, an English-language news site in the region.
The Russian Navy said “serious troubles were avoided” and that the crew was able to get away without harming the animals.