Footage of a dutiful beluga whale returning an expensive gadget to its rightful human owner is making waves online. Strangely enough, iPhone owner Ina Mansika and her friends were actually searching for the specific whale — which attained celebrity status weeks ago as a suspected Russian navy spy when it turned up in open waters around Hammerfest, Norway, wearing a harness — when the encounter occurred. Mansika told The Dodo that she and her pals laid down on a dock for a better chance to see the infamous beluga and "hopefully get the chance to pat it" when her phone slipped out of her jacket pocket and into the ocean. Seconds later, the considerate sea creature dove down and appeared at the surface of the water with the gadget in its mouth, to the shock of onlookers. "We assumed it would be gone forever, until the whale dove back down and came back a few moments later with my phone in its mouth!" Mansika said. Sadly, Mansika's phone had sustained too much water damage and could not be recovered by the time it was retrieved — but she says she still appreciates the gesture. "I love animals!" she told The Dodo. "The whale is so kind." A good Samaritan? Certainly. A spy for Vladimir Putin? Remains to be determined.<doc-sep>THIS is the amazing moment a beluga whale thought to be a defecting Russian spy returned a dropped iPhone to its owner after diving to retrieve it. Isa Opdahl filmed the astonishing clip, captioned “when animals are kinder than humans”, while out in a boat with friends in a harbour in Norway when the handset fell into the water. 7 The beluga whale can be seen surfacing 7 To their amazement, the whale has the missing phone in its mouth 7 The whale then appears to look directly at the people in the boat in the manner of a dog that has fetched a stick The video shows a beluga whale slowly emerging to the surface holding the phone in its mouth, before it was taken by its grateful recipient. It was believed to have been filmed in Hammerfest harbour in Norway and its speculated the whale was the same creature that had been trained as a “spy” by the Russian military before escaping from an experimental military programme. The AWOL beluga had been found by fishermen off the coast last week wearing a harness and a camera attachment. Audun Rikardsen, an arctic and marine biology professor at the Arctic University of Norway, said it was “most likely that the Russian Navy in Murmansk" was involved. He said: “We know that in Russia they have had domestic whales in captivity and also that some of these have apparently been released. “Then they often seek out boats.” MOST READ IN NEWS Exclusive OUT OF THIS WORLD Negative from film said to depict Roswell alien autopsy on sale for £710k BETRAYAL OF TRUST Woman, 22, 'lured off street by paramedic and gang raped in ambulance' Latest FERRY DISASTER More than 150 feared dead after overloaded ferry 'breaks in two' and sinks CLINGING TO LIFE Hotel owner left critical after catching deadly from Aussie mouse plague CRYPTO KILLER Bondage-obsessed Bitcoin trader ‘went crazy’ & strangled lover to death SLIPPERY CHARACTER Massive deadly snake lurks in Aussie back garden... can YOU spot it? CNN reported on Friday that it had been enjoying its stay, following a boat all the way to Hammerfest. This has happened before and some scientists speculate it could be something to do with a phone’s radio signal combined with the friendliness of dolphins and beluga whales. A video has reemerged showing a model Terressa Cee dropping her phone but a dolphin was filmed emerging with her phone. Dolphin retrieves girl's phone from bottom of pool 7 This is the Beluga whale found off the coast of Norway strapped into a Russian-made harness Credit: Fiskeridirektoratet 7 The harness had an inscription on it identifying it as made in St Petersburg Credit: Fiskeridirektoratet 7 Experts say no researchers in Norway or Russia use such harnesses - meaning it probably escaped a military programme Credit: Fiskeridirektoratet 7 The creature's harness even had an attachment designed to house a GoPro camera Credit: AP:Associated Press ‘Spy’ beluga whale fitted with Russian military camera harness found swimming off coast of Norway We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.<doc-sep>
A phone dropped in the sea is usually gone forever, but not when a friendly whale retrieves from the ocean floor. Video of exactly this happening in Norway has to be seen to be believed. Even better, the beluga starring in the video is thought by some to be the Russian spy whale who made headlines last week. The video was posted on Instagram by Isa Opdahl. It was reportedly filmed in Hammerfest, Norway. The phone belongs to Ina Mansika, who was with some friends out looking for the celebrated spy whale. Fortunately, they found him. “We laid down on the dock to look at it and hopefully get the chance to pat it,” Mansika told The Dodo. “I had forgotten to close my jacket pocket and my phone fell in the ocean. We assumed it would be gone forever, until the whale dove back down and came back a few moments later with my phone in its mouth!” Despite the efforts of the well-meaning whale, the handset didn’t survive its trip to the bottom. That probably means it’s not one of Apple’s newest iPhone models, as they’re designed for short trips in the drink. Last year, an iPhone X survived hours in the briny depths. A friendly spy whale? Probably not Last week, a beluga whale wearing what appeared to a camera harness approached fishermen in Norway. The harness was clearly too tight, and the whale very friendly, so a fisherman removed it. The harness reportedly had a label indicating it was from St. Petersburg. Some immediately jumped to the conclusion that this was an escaped Russian spy whale. However, on Russian TV, Colonel Viktor Baranets said, “If we were using this animal for spying do you really think we’d attach a mobile phone number with the message ‘please call this number’?”