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A beluga whale accused of spying for Russia with a mounted camera has been found dead near Norway's coast
By Matthew Loh,
7 hours ago
A white beluga whale wearing a harness is seen off the coast of northern Norway, April 29, 2019.
Jorgen Ree Wiig/Sea Surveillance Service/Handout/NTB Scanpix via REUTERS
Hvaldimir, Norway's beloved beluga whale, has been found dead, according to conservationists.
Hvaldimir, famed for his many interactions with locals, was considered a young whale at about 15 years of age.
He first appeared in 2019 with a camera on a harness, fueling a theory that he was trained to spy for Russia.
A beluga whale believed to have been trained to spy for Russia was found dead in Norwegian waters on Saturday, five years after making the local coast his home.
The lifeless body of Hvaldimir was discovered by a teenage fisherman and his father near the town of Risavika on Saturday morning, according to marine conservationists from the nonprofit Marine Mind.
"Our team arrived to find Hvaldimir floating peacefully in the water," the organization wrote in a social media post . "It is not immediately clear what caused his death, a necropsy will be conducted to determine his early passing."
Hvaldimir, whose name is a pun featuring the Norwegian word for "whale" and Russian leader Vladimir Putin's name, first drew attention in 2019 when he appeared off Norway's northern coast sporting a harness with a Go-Pro.
Marine Mind, which has been largely dedicated to caring for Hvaldimir since his appearance, said it knows little about the beluga whale's past and can't confirm whether Russia captured him before.
"Hvaldimir was very interested in people and responded to hand signals," the organization said on its website. "Based on these observations, it appeared as if Hvaldimir arrived in Norway by crossing over from Russian waters, where it is presumed he was held in captivity."
But if he was trained by the Kremlin, Hvaldimir seemed to have defected, gradually traveling south toward Norway's more populated regions over the last four years.
Marine Mind said Hvaldimir was found multiple times with scars from accidental boat collisions after showing up, but that he was a resilient animal who was adapting to life with humans.
Hvaldimir was believed to be about 15 years old, and beluga whales can live up to 60 years in the wild.
A resident, Dag Anfindsen, told NRK that he had spotted Hvaldimir in healthy condition just a day before his death, observing the whale diving and swimming for several minutes.
Marine Mind and the Russian defense ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.
Hvaldimir's death comes amid growing tensions in an already frosty relationship between Norway and Russia due to the Ukraine war.
US allies in northeastern Europe, particularly the Nordic and Baltic nations, have been vocal about resisting Russia and strengthening their defense industries. In April, Oslo announced it would nearly double its defense budget with an expansion of $56 billion.
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