‘Russian spy’ whale shot dead: animal rights groups

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UPDATES with details from photos, police report

Animal rights groups said Wednesday that a beluga whale had been shot to death. The whale became famous in Norway after its unusual harness raised suspicions that the animal had been trained by Russia as a spy.

The organisations NOAH and One Whale said they had filed a complaint with the Norwegian police and asked them to launch a criminal investigation.

The white beluga, nicknamed “Hvaldimir,” in a play on the Norwegian word for whale (hval) and its alleged links to Moscow, first appeared off the coast of Norway’s northernmost region, Finnmark, in 2019.

He is a celebrity in Norway and was found dead on Saturday in a bay on the country's southwest coast.

His body was transferred to the local branch of the Norwegian Veterinary Institute for an autopsy on Monday.

The report is expected “within three weeks,” said a spokeswoman for the institute.

“He had multiple gunshot wounds all over his body,” Regina Crosby Haug, head of One Whale, an organization set up to track the beluga, told AFP after seeing Hvaldimir's body on Monday.

Photos released by the two organizations on Wednesday showed what appeared to be bullet holes in the animal's blood-stained body.

“The whale's injuries are alarming and of a nature that cannot rule out criminal activity – it is shocking,” NOAH Director Siri Martinsen said in a statement.

“Given the suspicion of a crime, rapid police intervention is crucial,” she said.

Police confirmed receipt of a complaint and said they would review the case “to determine whether there are reasonable grounds to initiate an investigation.”

The veterinary institute told AFP that police would be informed if the autopsy revealed anything suspicious.

When Hvaldimir was found in 2019, Norwegian marine biologists removed a man-made harness with a mount suitable for an action camera and the words “Equipment St. Petersburg” printed in English on the plastic closures.

Norwegian officials said Hvaldimir may have escaped from an enclosure and been trained by the Russian Navy, as he appeared to be used to contact with humans.

Moscow has never officially responded to speculation that he might be a “Russian spy.”

A third organization that had also been tracking the whale's movements, Marine Mind, said it found Hvaldimir's body floating in the water at around 2:30 p.m. (12:30 GMT) on Saturday.

“There was nothing that immediately indicated the cause of death,” director Sebastian Strand told AFP. “We saw markings, but it is too early to say the cause of death.”

He said some of the markings were likely caused by seabirds, but the others had no explanation at this time.

One Whale and Marine Mind disagreed about how best to protect Hvaldimir.

Citing the risk of collision with ships, One Whale requested its transfer to the Barents Sea off northern Norway, a more natural habitat for belugas.

But Marine Mind was against this idea, arguing that transportation could pose a threat to his life.

With an estimated age of 15 to 20 years, Hvaldimir was relatively young for a beluga whale, which normally lives to 30 to 35 years, according to the WWF.

In 2019, the “spy whale” hypothesis was fueled by the strategic location of the Barents Sea, a flashpoint of East-West rivalry during the Cold War.

Moscow's most powerful naval fleet is stationed in the Barents Sea, and Russia and the West continue to monitor the movements of their respective submarines in the region.

The region is also the gateway to the Northeast Passage, which significantly shortens the shipping routes between the Atlantic and the Pacific.

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