A Beluga whale, nicknamed “Hvaldimir,” whose unusual harness once sparked suspicions of being trained by Russia for espionage, has been found dead in Norway, according to an NGO that monitored his movements.
Hvaldimir first appeared off the coast of Norway’s far-northern Finnmark region in 2019. The name is a play on the Norwegian word for whale, “hval,” and his rumored connections to Moscow.
When he was first spotted, Norwegian marine biologists removed a man-made harness that was attached to him, which was designed to hold an action camera and had the words “Equipment St. Petersburg” printed on the plastic clasps.
At the time, Norwegian officials speculated that Hvaldimir might have escaped from captivity and been trained by the Russian navy, given his apparent familiarity with humans.
However, Moscow has never commented on the rumors that he could have been a “Russian spy.”
On Saturday, the lifeless body of the beluga was discovered off the southwest coast at Risavika by Marine Mind, an organization that had tracked his movements for years.
“I found Hvaldi dead when I was scouting for him yesterday, as usual,” said Sebastian Strand, founder of Marine Mind. “We had confirmed he was alive just over 24 hours before finding him floating motionlessly.”
Fredrik Skarbovik, maritime coordinator at the port of Stavanger, also confirmed the whale’s death to the VG tabloid newspaper.
Strand noted that the cause of Hvaldimir’s death is still unknown, as no visible injuries were found during an initial inspection of the body. “We’ve managed to retrieve his remains and placed him in a cooled area, preparing for a necropsy by the veterinary institute to determine what really happened,” he added.
Hvaldimir was estimated to be around 14 or 15 years old, relatively young for a Beluga whale, which can live between 40 and 60 years.
Beluga whales can grow up to six meters (20 feet) in length and typically inhabit the icy waters around Greenland, northern Norway, and Russia, including the Barents Sea, a geopolitically significant region where Western and Russian submarine movements are closely monitored.
The area is also a key gateway to the Northern Route, which shortens maritime journeys between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
I am an experienced writer, analyst, and author. My exposure in English journalism spans more than 28 years. In the past, I have been working with daily The Muslim (Lahore Bureau), daily Business Recorder (Lahore/Islamabad Bureaus), Daily Times, Islamabad, daily The Nation (Lahore and Karachi). With daily The Nation, I have served as Resident Editor, Karachi. Since 2009, I have been working as a Freelance Writer/Editor for American organizations.
