A few days ago, a spy whale, allegedly trained by Russia, was found dead on the coast of Norway.
Although this practice has never been acknowledged by President Vladimir Putin‘s government
alerts about a case of secret intelligence made headlines worldwide.
Now, animal rights activists have pointed out that the whale was found with gunshot wounds.
OneWhale and NOAH, two prominent NGOs, have filed a police report in relation to the tragic death of ‘Hvaldimir’.
The report has already been submitted to the Sandnes Police District and the Norwegian National Economic and Environmental Crime Investigation and Prosecution Authority. “He had multiple bullet wounds around his body,” Regina Haug founder of One Whale said through a statement on social media.
“The injuries are alarming and of a nature that cannot rule out a criminal act – it is shocking” Noah Director, Siri Martinsen said.
The beluga whale was found dead in Norway. Its body was floating near the town of Risavika. Experts are still investigating the remains to determine what caused the incident, but activists point to an intentional operation.
The spy whale was first spotted in Norwegian waters five years ago, with a GoPro camera attached to a harness that read “St. Petersburg Team.” Of course, with the name of a Russian city, rumors were rife that the mammal could be a spy whale, something that experts say has happened in the past. However, the Russian government never responded to the allegations.
This beluga whale, which was nicknamed Hvaldimir, had already been spotted in Norwegian waters for several years. With an estimated age of 15 years, the specimen was not old for a beluga whale, whose life expectancy can reach 60 years.
It first approached Norwegian ships in April 2019, near the island of Ingoya, about 415 kilometers from the famous city of Murmansk, where Russia’s Northern Fleet is based.
The sighting raised eyebrows because belugas are rarely seen this far south in the High Arctic.
Now, the spy whale’s lifeless body was discovered over the weekend by Marine Mind, an organisation that has tracked its movements for years. The organisation’s founder Sebastian Strand explained more details of what happened in an exclusive interview with AFP.
Of course, right at the height of the war in Ukraine and tension with NATO, the whale’s story has taken on enormous media coverage, especially on social media. As a result, an investigation is already underway by Norway’s national intelligence agency, which subsequently said the whale had likely been trained by the Russian military, as it seemed to be accustomed to humans.
The spy whale became known locally as Hvaldimir, a pun on the Norwegian word for whale, “hval”, and President Vladimir Putin. Russia has a history of training marine mammals such as dolphins for military purposes and whale enclosures have been identified near naval bases in the north-west area of Murmansk. Russia has never confirmed that it has a programme to train marine mammals as spies.