For an alleged spy, Hvaldimir was anything but covert.
The white beluga whale has been appearing regularly off the coast of Norway since it was first sighted in the north of the country in April 2019. It was wearing a harness and what appeared to be a mount for a small camera. Together with a buckle marked “Equipment St. Petersburg”, this sparked speculation that the animal was an escaped “spy whale” that had been trained for military purposes in neighboring Russia.
The whale seemed to love the company of humans and quickly captivated local residents, who named him Hvaldimir – a combination of the Norwegian word for whale, “hval”, and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The 4.2-meter-long, 1,270-kilogram whale was found dead in the port of Stavanger, a city in southwestern Norway, on Saturday after having been in the area since last year, the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries said in a statement on Monday.
Marine biologist Sebastian Strand, who followed Hvaldimir’s adventures for the non-governmental organization Marine Mind, said he made the discovery while searching for the whale and was “heartbroken.”
“He meant more to me, to the team and to the thousands of people whose lives he had a profound impact than I can express,” Strand said, adding that Hvaldimir was still known to be alive on Friday.
“We responded to a sighting but didn’t know anything had happened to him,” he said.
Strand said Hvaldimir’s body had only superficial injuries and the cause of death was unclear. An autopsy will be carried out on Monday, the Fisheries Directorate said.
Although locals speculated that Hvaldimir might be on a secret mission for the Kremlin, Moscow never claimed the alleged Russian agent as its own.
The military use of marine animals is well documented.
Navies around the world, including those of the Soviet Union and the United States, famously attempted to tame whales for espionage missions during the Cold War, training them to recover underwater objects, detect mines, and even for defensive operations.
Other theories suggest that Hvaldimir could have been a therapy whale, which could explain his interest in humans and his reaction to hand signals.
“Hvaldimir appeared to have arrived in Norway from Russian waters, where he was believed to have been held captive,” Marine Mind’s website states.
The whale’s solitude and behavior were atypical for its species, which normally moves in groups and inhabits remote Arctic areas. Hvaldimir was known to love catamarans in Norway, regularly following them from one fish farm to another and searching for food under the fishing nets.
“He stayed close to the fish farms and was able to catch fish that fed on surplus feed from the farms,” the Fisheries Directorate said.
Over the years, Hvaldimir’s movements in densely populated areas had raised concerns about the potential risk of injury from boats and fishing nets.
“Right now, we are working to give him some final dignity by making sure he stays healthy and gets checked out so his death is not a mystery,” Strand said. “But no matter what happens now, a beloved friend of many has left us.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com.
