[Animals] Alleged Russian spy whale reappears in Norwegian and Swedish waters

[Draeno]

 

Hvaldimir has reappeared in Norway and Sweden, and the question is to what end. Are you passing through or on a spy mission? This beluga whale was first spotted in Norwegian Arctic waters in 2019. It was wearing a specially made harness with camera mounts and marked "Equipment St. Petersburg," leading experts to believe the animal may have been Trained by the Russian Army. That is, it is speculated that Hvaldimir is a spy whale for the Kremlin. In fact, the name of the cetacean is not trivial: it is a play on words between "hval", the Norwegian word that means whale, and the name of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

For four years, the whale has traveled south along the Norwegian coast "with a few stops," the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries said in early May. The cetacean "tends to stay in hatcheries where it can catch fish, grazing on surplus food," the agency added.

In this time, the animal "has suffered multiple and serious injuries: it has been struck by boats, severely cut by boat propellers, and has fishing hooks attached to its body. Someone also placed foreign objects in its mouth that probably they caused a serious oral infection," said OneWhale on Saturday, May 27, an NGO created expressly to protect the health and well-being of the animal

These serious injuries occurred before it reached the Oslo area, with more than a million people, major industrial ports and very heavy ship traffic. That raised fears for the whale's safety, the organization explains. However, "the famous beluga dodged the dangerous waters of Oslo in the direction of Sweden," OneWhale reported Monday.

"Extremely vulnerable situation"
"Hvaldimir's situation remains extremely vulnerable, as Sweden is a highly po[CENSORED]ted country and has more ship traffic than Norway, but we are very grateful that the Swedish authorities have taken steps to care for the whale. They even closed a bridge to protect her," said the president of the NGO, Rich German.

The animal is not wearing any harness or object of surveillance in the sightings of recent days, as can be seen in the photographs and videos that OneWhale has published. In 2019 it was different. "I saw the whale and I thought it was really something important. I knew this situation was unique," said Jorgen Ree Wiig, a marine biologist with the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries, one of the first to find it.

 

https://www.elperiodico.com/es/internacional/20230601/ballena-espia-rusa-hvaldimir-reaparece-aguas-noruega-suecia-dv-88134021