[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text dp_text_size=”size-4″]According to a beluga whale tracking organisation, an alleged former Russian spy whale has been spotted off the coast of Sweden.
The whale, known locally as Hvaldimir, was first spotted off the coast of Norway in 2019 while wearing a Russian harness.
After spending years slowly travelling south from Norway’s far north, the whale has accelerated his movements out of Norwegian waters in recent months.
OneWhale stated that the reason for his sudden hastiness was unknown.
Four years ago, a tame beluga whale approached Norwegian boats near the island of Ingoya. The island is 415 kilometres (258 miles) from Murmansk, Russia’s Northern Fleet’s base.
He was discovered wearing a harness with a GoPro camera mount and clips that said “Equipment of St Petersburg”
The discovery prompted a probe by Norway’s domestic intelligence agency, which later told that the whale was most likely trained by the Russian army.
Since then, the whale has been dubbed Hvaldimir, after the Norwegian word for whale, hval, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia, for its part, has never officially denied that Hvaldimir was trained by the Russian military. It previously denied the existence of any programmes aimed at training sea mammals to be spies.
In 2019, however, a Russian reserve colonel, Col Viktor Baranets, stated, “If we were using this animal for spying, do you really think we’d attach a mobile phone number with the message ‘Please call this number’?”
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Sebastian Strand, a marine biologist with OneWhale, believes the whale’s recent movement changes could be due to a variety of factors.
“We don’t know why he’s sped up so fast right now,” he said, especially since he’s moving “very quickly away from his natural environment.”
Mr Strand stated that there were two possible explanations for his change in behaviour, one of which was high hormone levels “driving him to find a mate.”
He added that another could be related to “loneliness.” “Belugas are a very social species; he could be looking for other beluga whales.”
Beluga whales are found in the icy Arctic waters off the coasts of Greenland, Russia, Alaska, and northern Norway, and some migrate during the summer.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
