They named him Hvaldimir, a strange combination of the Norwegian word for whales, ‘hval’, and the Russian Federation’s president, ‘Vladimir’, which gives a clear idea that beluga is not just a whale, but just any animal that was found dead on the southwestern coast of Norway on Saturday.

Hvaldimir has sparked Norwegian imaginations and suspicions since fishermen first spotted it near the island of Ingøya in 2019. The reason: the never-confirmed, but never-denied, suspicion that the giant marine mammal was actually a spy under Moscow’s command.

Now his death adds to the mystery.

Surprise in RisavikaThe news was reported by public broadcaster NRK. A father and son fishing in the area on Saturday came across the carcass of a beluga whale floating off the coast of Risavika Bay in southern Norway. The discovery was tragic in itself, but it was made even more significant by the confirmation that the several-metre-long marine mammal was Hvaldimir, perhaps the most famous beluga whale not only in Norway and Scandinavia, but in the entire world.

So what happened to him? That’s what marine biologist Sebastian Strand of Marine Mind, which has been tracking the marine mammals’ footprints for years, aims to find out now. After all, Hvaldimir is estimated to be between 14 and 15 years old — not that long, considering beluga whales typically live to be between 40 and 60 years old.

Experts who examined the body, which was pulled from the water with the help of a crane, found no serious injuries, at least not externally. “It’s absolutely horrific,” Strand told NRK. “He was apparently fine on Friday, so we need to find out what might have happened to him.”

This wasn’t just any white whale. No, Hvaldimir was a special animal. And that’s already clear in its name, a clear clue to the mystery and unknown that led to its first official sighting near the island of Ingøya in northern Norway in April 2019. There, some fishermen found it by surprise. And speculations began to emerge about what its origins might be.

Why? Hvaldimir, which was 4.2 meters long and weighed about 1,225 kilograms, swam alone and while it is normal for this type of marine mammal to move in groups and live in remote areas, it has been seen in places as far south as Risavika Bay, where it was found dead. It also had a docile demeanor, leading experts to believe it was probably domesticated.

“It was completely adapted to human culture,” Strand explained to the newspaper these days. New York TimesHe therefore suspects that the mysterious beluga whale “spent most of its life in captivity.”

Friendly… What about espionage? If all of the above wasn’t enough to spark the imagination of Norwegians (and the rest of the world), when Hvaldimir was discovered in 2019, he displayed an even more peculiar trait: He was strapped into a harness. A very specific one. The straps attached to his body had what looked like a small camera bracket, and the buckle said “Team St. Petersburg.” Some sources even go so far as to claim that he was carrying a GoPro. A Norwegian fisherman was later tasked with removing the harness.

Spinning tips. This detail has led to speculation about Hvaldimir’s origins. And among them, there was one whale that sounded particularly powerful since it was first seen near Ingøya: It was a whale trained by Russian authorities for espionage work. Moscow has never confirmed this, but that hasn’t stopped the circumstances of its first sighting, 415 kilometers from Murmansk, where the Russian Northern Fleet is based, from raising suspicions.

The BBC assures that an investigation by Norway’s domestic intelligence agency has revealed that Hvaldimir was likely trained by the Russian military. Another theory, based on the animal’s docile demeanor, is that it may have been used as a “therapeutic whale” in Russia. OneWhale, the organization that cares for Hvaldimir, noted that the cameras it once carried “were not for photographing nature,” but researchers have always been cautious about its origins and alleged training.

The reason for sleepless nights. Whether or not it’s a beluga whale trained by the Russian Navy, the fact remains that biologists have been monitoring Hvaldimir for years. And at times, they’ve made no secret of their concerns for his safety. The reason? His social nature and movements are sometimes incomprehensible. Just a year ago, in mid-2023, marine biologist Eve Jourdain, who supports a feeding program to ensure Hvaldimir’s well-being, admitted that the animal appeared lost and that its behavior had experts baffled.

“It’s an Arctic whale, it shouldn’t be going south. It’s a mystery.” The marine mammal was recently spotted off the coast of Sweden. It has been seen swimming regularly in Norwegian waters since 2019, but its journey further south has raised concerns about how it might feed or, worse yet, whether it could be at greater risk of colliding with boat propellers.

Marine mammals ready to spyIt may seem strange that there is speculation in Norway that Hvaldimir is a Beluga spy, but this hypothesis is not based solely on the seat belt he wore in 2019 or the point at which he first appeared. Two years ago, the information portal of the US Naval Institute, USNI News, claimed that Russia had installed dolphin enclosures at the entrance to the port of Sevastopol, its main naval base on the Black Sea. Their mission: to prevent submarine sabotage.

The British intelligence agency confirmed that dolphins were deployed to protect the Northern Fleet. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union trained the animals to neutralize mines, attack divers and even perform kamikaze attacks. In 2000, the BBC claimed that Iran had actually purchased dolphins that had been trained by the Soviet navy to fight divers.

The Kremlin is not alone in considering the potential of marine mammals. The US Navy has also studied and even trained them, including beluga whales, to perform tasks such as mine-spotting.

Images | Gary Cole (Unsplash) and GovernmentZA (Flickr)

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