Hvaldimir, a beluga whale spotted five years ago wearing a strange harness that raised suspicions the whale was being used by the Russian Navy, was found dead in southwest Norway yesterday, according to a non-governmental organization that tracked the whale’s movements. of the whale.
The whale was first spotted in the waters of the Norwegian Arctic in 2019. The name given to this several-meter-long beluga came from a wordplay connecting the word whale (hval, in Norwegian) and the common Russian first name (Vladimir). .
“I found Hvaldi dead yesterday while I was looking for her, as I usually do,” marine biologist Sebastian Strand, founder of the NGO Marine Mind, told AFP. “We had confirmed that she was alive just over 24 hours before we found her floating motionless” off the southwest coast at Risavika, he added.
Her cause of death is not yet known, and no visible injuries were found during the whale’s initial necropsy, Strand said, noting that the veterinary institute will help determine her cause of death.
An official at the port of Stavanger confirmed the whale’s death to VG newspaper.
Estimated to be between 14 and 15 years old, “Hvaldimir” was spotted in April 2019 off the Arctic region of Finnmark in the Far North of Norway. Biologists who had approached her managed to remove the belt tied around her head. The belt was equipped with a mount for a small camera, and on the plastic straps of the belt was written in English: “Equipment St. Petersburg.”
The Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries assumed at the time that Hvaldimir had escaped from an enclosure and had been trained by the Russian Navy, as it appears that she was used to the company of people and had a tendency to approach ships. Moscow has never officially commented on the speculation.
A year ago the whale was spotted off the west coast of Sweden and the ICO had raised concerns that it might not be able to find food in that sea area, with the organization saying it had already seen signs of weight loss.
Beluga whales usually live much further north, near Greenland, or in the waters of the Russian or Norwegian Arctic.
The Barents Sea and the North Atlantic are strategic areas for the Navies of both Russia and Western countries, an area with a common contact zone for their submarines.
Source: RES-MPE
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