A whale that was spotted in Norway in 2019 wearing a harness, prompting accusations that it was a Russian spy, has reappeared off Sweden’s coast.
First discovered in Norway’s far northern region of Finnmark, the beluga whale spent more than three years moving down the top half of the Norwegian coastline before suddenly speeding up in recent months to cover the second half and move on to Sweden.
On Sunday it was observed in Hunnebostrand, off Sweden’s southwest coast.
When the whale first appeared four years ago, marine biologists from the Norwegian directorate of fisheries removed a harness from it.
The harness had a mount suited for an action camera and the words “Equipment St Petersburg” printed on the plastic clasps.
Directorate officials said the whale, a male nicknamed Hvaldimir, may have escaped an enclosure and may have been trained by the Russian navy because it appeared to be accustomed to humans. Moscow never issued an official response to Norwegian speculation that it could be a Russian spy.
“We don’t know why he has sped up so fast right now,” Sebastian Strand, a marine biologist with the OneWhale organisation, said after the most recent sighting, adding that it was particularly puzzling because the whale was moving “very quickly away from his natural environment”.
“It could be hormones driving him to find a mate. Or it could be loneliness, as belugas are a very social species — it could be that he’s searching for other beluga whales.”
Strand said the whale, believed to be aged about 13 or 14, was “at an age where his hormones are very high”.
The closest population of belugas is located in the Svalbard archipelago, midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole.
The Barents Sea, south of Svalbard, is a strategic geopolitical area where western and Russian submarine movements are monitored. It is also the gateway to the northern sea route, which shortens maritime journeys between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The whale is not believed to have seen a single other beluga since arriving in Norway in April 2019. His name is a pun on the Norwegian word for whale, hval, and a nod to his alleged association with Russia.
Strand said the whale’s health “seemed to be very good” in recent years and it had been foraging wild fish under Norway’s salmon farms.
His organisation was concerned about Hvaldimir’s ability to find food in Sweden, however, and has already observed some weight loss.
Beluga whales, which can reach a length of almost six metres (20ft) and live to between 40 and 60 years, generally inhabit the icy waters around Greenland, northern Norway and Russia.
Source: The Times
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