Whale calls from UI research in a new children's book about Wally the Walrus

A new children's book has been published, starring Wally, a walrus who visited Iceland last autumn, along with other marine mammals from the Icelandic coast. Among the book's authors is Edda Elísabet Magnúsdóttir, an expert on marine mammals and lecturer at the UI School of Education. The book uses research by her and her colleagues into the calls of marine mammals.

The book is entitled Valli litli rostungur: Ævintýri byggt á sannri sögu (Wally the Little Walrus: An Adventure Based on a True Story) and is published by Sögur útgáfa. "Tommi at Sögur útgáfa contacted me, since I have been recording and researching whale calls. They were interested in publishing a book featuring the calls of whales around the coast of Iceland. The publishers were also thinking about making Wally the protagonist. Wally was an amazing young walrus who came to Iceland about a year ago and attracted a lot of attention, as most people probably remember. I liked the idea right away, since it seemed to me a great opportunity to share knowledge about marine animals and the noises they make in Icelandic waters," explains Edda, who has been working on the book for the last 6 months along with her co-authors. Helgi Jónsson and Anna Marinósdóttir. The book also features wonderful illustrations by Freydís Kristjánsdóttir.

The mating calls of humpback whales and dolphin whistles

The book follows Wally as he goes on an adventure around the coast of Iceland, meeting the residents of Höfn in Hornafjörður and various animals along the way, all making very different noises. "Many of the whale calls included in the book are ones that I recorded throughout the year in Skjálfandflói bay as part of my PhD at the UI Research Centre in Húsavík. The sounds you can hear in the book include diverse calls from humpback whales, such as social calls and mating calls," says Edda. 

It also features dolphin whistles and various other whale calls. "Filipa Samarra at the UI Research Centre in the Westman Islands has worked for a long time researching the calls of killer whales and she provided various killer whale calls recorded in Iceland, as well as pilot whale calls from her PhD student Anna Selbmann. You can also hear a range of calls from walruses, seals, beluga whales and right whales that were recorded elsewhere," says Edda.

Edda explains that the main challenge with producing the book was choosing between all the different ideas the authors had about what should happen in the book. "There are all kinds of scenes that are based on real stories about animals in Iceland and the Arctic region that Helgi and I were personally familiar with. The ones that made the cut were just a fraction of the ideas that we had during the process. It was also difficult to select the sounds – there were a lot we had to leave out, mainly due to quality, because underwater recordings are not exactly like the ones you would get in a recording studio. There can be various background noises, or the sound source might be too far away," says Edda. 

A duty to share expertise and research with a wide audience

The book is written for children aged around 7-9, "but it is actually suitable for all ages, since it is centred around the recordings that open a window into the world of sounds beneath the waves. The book also educates readers about the biology of walruses in the North Atlantic and other animals, the threats facing marine ecosystems due to pollution of the oceans, the animals' struggle for survival, the geography of Iceland and the Arctic, as well as human societies in these regions."

The Strategy of the University, UI26, places considerable emphasis on community partnerships and diverse methods for sharing knowledge. The book about Wally is an excellent example of how marine biology research can be shared with the youngest audiences in a fun way, alongside raising awareness of the threats to those ecosystems. Edda argues that it is vitally important for scientists to share their research and specialist knowledge, whether on Twitter or other social media platforms, through the media or through works of fiction such as this. 

"Having a platform that you can use to inspire an interest in nature and living things is incredibly important, since the natural world is under threat and almost completely dominated by humans these days. We need to teach children, and in fact everyone, to respect nature, to love it. We need to inspire them to do their bit to protect the natural world. As a marine biologist, a teacher and a lecturer at the UI School of Education, I am obviously in a good position to educate others. So I feel it's my duty to share my expertise with the public whenever a good opportunity arises. Being able to communicate in such a creative way, by working on this story with amazingly talented artists, is possibly the best way to share knowledge," says Edda. 

The story about Wally is fiction, but it is inspired by the real visit to Iceland of a real walrus that was spotted at a variety of locations across Europe last year. But do we know what became of him? "Wally hasn't been seen since he left Iceland, at least not to my knowledge. Hopefully he made it back to his natural habitat and joined up with some other walruses. Despite their wanderlust, walruses are highly social animals and their chances of survival are lower if they are isolated from others of their kind for too long. There have been other walruses spotted far from home, such as Freya, who ended up being shot in Norway due to safety concerns about members of the public who came too close. Maybe one day we will find out what happened to Wally, whether he is dead or alive, who knows," concludes Edda.