STOCKHOLM — A harness-wearing Beluga whale that turned up in Norway in 2019, sparking speculation it was a spy trained by the Russian navy, has appeared off Sweden's coast, an organisation following him said on Monday (May 29).
First discovered in Norway's far northern region of Finnmark, the whale spent more than three years slowly moving down the top half of the Norwegian coastline, before suddenly speeding up in recent months to cover the second half and on to Sweden."We don't know why he has sped up so fast right now," especially since he is moving"very quickly away from his natural environment", Mr Sebastian Strand, a marine biologist with the OneWhale organisation, told AFP.
The closest population of Belugas is however located in the Svalbard archipelago, in Norway's far north.Norwegians nicknamed it"Hvaldimir" — a pun on the word"whale" in Norwegian, hval, and a nod to its alleged association with Russia. Directorate officials said Hvaldimir may have escaped an enclosure and may have been trained by the Russian navy as it appeared to be accustomed to humans.The Barents Sea is a strategic geopolitical area where Western and Russian submarine movements are monitored.
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