Hvaldimir: The famous whale, also known as the “Russian Spy”, is dead

OR whale beluga, nicknamed Hvaldimirwho was allegedly trained by Russian army as…. a spy, she was found dead according to relevant reports.

Sebastian Strand, founder of Marine Mind, a non-profit organization working to protect the whale, said he came across the lifeless body of the mammal off the coast of Norway.

Noting that the cause of the whale’s death is still unclear, Strand said the animal’s body was covered in scars that he thought were caused by birds or other sea creatures.

“It’s very sad. Hvaldimir touched the hearts of thousands of people, not only in Norway,” he said.

The whale was caught swimming in the north of Norway in 2019 with a special device with a mounted camera and subsequently became famous around the world as the “spy whale”.

Due to speculation that he was trained by Russia as a “spy”, the animal was given the nickname Hvaldimir, which is a combination of the Norwegian word “hval”, meaning whale, and Vladimir.

In 2018, when the whale was found by the Norwegians, scientists said that the beluga whale in question, which was wearing harnesses and was found harassing fishermen off the northern coast of Norway, was probably a tool of the Russian military.

Experts from the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research intervened after fishermen told them the whale was head-butting their boats and gnawing at nets off the island of Ingoja in the Arctic Circle.

The institute’s Martin Biuw told Norwegian broadcaster NRK:

“If this whale comes from Russia — and there is good reason to believe so — then it is not Russian scientists but rather the navy that has done it.”

Biuw said citizen scientists would not attach leashes to marine animals.

Experts from the institute, along with Norwegian government officials, lured the whale in 2018 with cod fillets before removing its leash, which images showed had the English words “Equipment St. Petersburg”.

Scientists said it was carrying an attachment that could fit a GoPro camera and was likely used to hold monitoring equipment such as cameras or other marine sensors.