A Beluga whale, nicknamed “Hvaldimir,” has been found dead off the southwest coast of Norway, according to the NGO Marine Mind, which has been tracking the whale‘s movements for years. Hvaldimir first gained attention in 2019 when he appeared off Norway’s far-northern Finnmark region, wearing a man-made harness with a mount suited for an action camera. The harness had the words “Equipment St. Petersburg” printed on the plastic clasps, sparking speculation that the whale had been trained by Russia for spying purposes. Norwegian marine biologists removed the harness shortly after the whale‘s appearance.
Norwegian officials suggested that Hvaldimir might have escaped from an enclosure and could have been trained by the Russian navy, as he seemed unusually accustomed to human interaction. Moscow has never officially responded to the speculation about the whale‘s possible role as a “Russian spy.
The beluga‘s body was discovered on Saturday by Marine Mind’s founder, Sebastian Strand, who had been routinely scouting for the whale. Strand reported finding Hvaldimir floating motionlessly just 24 hours after confirming the whale was alive. The cause of death remains unknown, as no visible injuries were found during the initial inspection of the body.
Fredrik Skarbovik, a maritime coordinator at the port of Stavanger, confirmed Hvaldimir’s death to the VG tabloid newspaper. The whale‘s remains have been retrieved and placed in a cooled area, awaiting a necropsy by the veterinary institute to determine the cause of death.
Hvaldimir, estimated to be around 14 or 15 years old, was relatively young for a Beluga whale, which typically live between 40 and 60 years. Beluga whales, which can reach a length of six meters (20 feet), usually inhabit the icy waters around Greenland, northern Norway, and Russia, including the Barents Sea. This region is geopolitically significant, as it is where Western and Russian submarine movements are monitored and serves as the gateway to the Northern Route, a shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
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