Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries official Jorgen Ree Wiig told The Washington Post that the beluga “was the first thing I saw outside of the window” of his patrol ship in the morning. Speaking from the city of Hammerfest, he said the whale had moved only about 25 nautical miles within the past week and appeared to enjoy being close to humans, which he noted was “strange” for a beluga.<doc-sep>Share this Story: Mystery beluga branded a Russian 'spy whale' may instead be a wayward children's therapy animal Mystery beluga branded a Russian 'spy whale' may instead be a wayward children's therapy animal The likely truth of the tale seems far more charming than initial reports suggested Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, HO - Norwegian Direcorate of Fisheries Sea Surveillance Unit, Joergen Ree Wiig Article content A mysterious beluga whale — wearing a Russian harness when found by Norwegian fishermen last week — quickly triggered Cold War paranoia with rampant speculation of the animal escaping a secret Russian military facility where, maybe, it was trained as a naval spy or to place bombs on enemy ships. The likely truth seems far more charming. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Mystery beluga branded a Russian 'spy whale' may instead be a wayward children's therapy animal Back to video The white whale is believed to be a children’s therapy animal from Russia, according to Fiskeribladet, a Norwegian fishing newspaper. Norwegian fishermen spotted the four-metre (13-foot) long beluga near the Norwegian harbor of Hammerfest, in the far north, near where Norway, Finland and Russia meet. Obviously tame and unafraid of humans, the beluga was approaching fishing boats, even rubbing up against them. On Friday, fisherman Joar Hesten, aided by fisheries inspector Jørgen Ree Wiig, jumped into the Arctic water to remove the harness. “We were going to put out nets when we saw a whale swimming between the boats,” Hesten told Norwegian broadcaster NRK. “It came over to us, and as it approached, we saw that it had some sort of harness on it.” Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content It came over to us, and as it approached, we saw that it had some sort of harness on it The harness had “Equipment St. Petersburg” written in English on a buckle and featured a mount for an action camera, such as a GoPro. He said Norwegian military officials “have shown great interest” in his discovery. University experts and other commentators immediately suspected the beluga, called Hvaldimir by the locals, was part of a Russian plot. It was likely an escapee from a Russian Navy base in Murmansk, said a professor from the Arctic University of Norway. People started researching programs and experiments using sea creatures as weapons or in espionage. Beluga researchers at universities and institutes were called about the prospect. He was branded a “spy whale.” The idea was mocked in Russia, with a retired Russian general declaring on a Moscow radio station: “We’re not idiots.” If Russia had secretly trained the beluga to spy for Russia, he said, they wouldn’t put a Russian name on its harness. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Photo by Joergen Ree Wiig/Norwegian Direcorate of Fisheries Sea Surveillance Unit via AP The general, Viktor Baranets, added, however, that there was a combat dolphin program that trained animals to do all the sort of things people feared the beluga might have been up to. Meanwhile, the whale became a celebrity, allowing petting and posing for selfies. During one encounter, captured on video, the beluga retrieved a phone accidently dropped into the ocean by an admirer. Then someone recognized the whale. Morten Vikeby, a former journalist with Fiskeribladet, told his old newspaper he believes Hvaldimir, the spy whale is really Semion, the therapy whale. More On This Topic This beluga whale was found wearing a harness. Norway thinks it escaped from a Russian military facility Canadian military unfazed by 'fishy' beluga whale suspected of spying for Russia Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content In 2008, Vikeby wrote about the Russian therapy whale for the newspaper. The whale, when young, had been attacked by sea lions and was raised by humans. He swam at a water sports centre and was so tame he had the special job of calming and delighting schoolchildren, particularly disadvantaged and special needs children. The whale program was not just for entertainment but to help children get closer to nature and closer to themselves, one of the Russian teachers told Vikeby at the time. “It was wearing a harness because it was used to drag boats with children on board. It is also the reason why it is so social,” Vikeby is quoted as saying. Vikeby told Fiskeribladet the whale probably escaped from the facility near the Norwegian border. Norwegian officials said no one has reported a missing whale. The fisheries inspector who helped ease the harness off the whale, meanwhile, told the Fiskeribladet he was delighted by the new development. “We have been thinking of espionage and war, but then it is just a whale that wants to help us humans. It is even used to cuddle with us. Absolutely amazing,” he said. 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Please try again Trending<doc-sep>BERGEN, NORWAY -- Is it a Russian spy? Is it a therapy animal? Is it just a runaway SeaWorld mammal finally free to take on the high seas? These are the theories swirling after a happy-go-lucky Beluga was spotted on Norway's northern coastline in Tufjord over a week ago. The whale, originally found wearing a harness with "Equipment St. Petersburg" printed on it, as well as a mounted camera, is not believed to be in the region for malign purposes, and has reportedly been spotted swimming up to Norwegian residents. But Norwegians will now face a difficult decision: Do they foster the Beluga, or do they 'free willy'? (The whale has actually been nicknamed "Hvladimir" by the Scandinavian media). "The concern is ... what do we do with it? Because it's 'ours' now," said a senior officer with the Royal Norwegian Navy, speaking on background. Military.com spoke with officials here as part of a trip organized by the Atlantic Council, a Washington D.C.-based think tank. The officer provided remarks on background in order to speak freely on various subjects. The officer, speaking from a Norwegian perspective, said he hopes an animal conservation organization comes to the defense of the whale, because it could endanger itself if it heads toward high-trafficked waterways on its swims. While aquatic mammals have historically been used by militaries for tasks like mine detection and harbor clearance, the Royal Norwegian Navy doesn't seem interested in training the whale or pressing it into service. Nor have officials given any indication of plans to 'interrogate' the creature. The officer, who said he's previously worked with porpoises in the military, although did not say to what extent, said that training with these animals has often proved unsuccessful, especially when military-grade sonar is in use. He added other militaries have seen some training successes, but in more limited roles, such as ocean-floor mine search. Another senior naval official said he found the SeaWorld theory intriguing, because it's plausible the Beluga traveled into the North Atlantic Strip using the Gulf Stream current. The official also noted that the harness didn't feature any Cyrillic lettering, which is typical for Russian equipment. While it has been reported that there may be whale and dolphin training centers in St. Petersburg, Florida, Seaworld is nearly 25 miles away in Tampa. Locals believe the whale, originally discovered by fishermen, has now moved to nearby Hammerfest. A recent viral video showed a Beluga retrieving a woman's iPhone after it fell into the water near the harbor there. It's unclear, though, if that whale was Hvladimir. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @oriana0214.<doc-sep>Since April 26, a suspected Russian spy has been hanging around the Norwegian port city of Hammerfest. The spy also just so happens to be a beluga whale. The beluga first drew the attention of Norwegian fishermen after it kept popping up and following them around in their boats, reported The Washington Post. The fishermen noticed that it was wearing a harness, later found to contain the inscription “Equipment St. Petersburg.” Beluga whale Credit: Getty Images Even though Norway’s Police Security Service (PST) assures The Washington Post that “the whale is not a suspect in [their] investigation,” speculation remains that the animal has been trained by the Russian navy. Whether or not this is true, it appears as if the whale has “clearly been trained under the care of humans for a good long time,” said Catherine Kinsman, co-founder of the Canadian Whale Stewardship Project. The beluga’s odd behavior has certainly made it an international superstar. Whereas white belugas are generally shy around people, this particular one is acting out of character for its species. Seeming to completely adore all the attention it's getting, the Hammerfest celebrity is allowing residents to pet, feed, and take selfies with it. That includes Ina Mansika and a group of her friends. According to The Dodo, she wanted to see the beluga for herself, and learned firsthand just how eager-to-please the animal can be. “We laid down on the dock to look at it and hopefully get the chance to pat it,” Ina 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!” You can see the sweet moment in the video below. “Everyone was so surprised. We almost didn’t believe what we saw,” she continued. “I was super happy and thankful that I got my phone back.” According to The Dodo, the beluga’s act of kindness proved pointless: the water damage had ruined her phone by the time she got it back. However, Mansika still expressed her gratitude towards the beluga. “I love animals! The whale is so kind.”<doc-sep>
Marine experts in Norway believe they have stumbled upon a white whale that was trained by the Russian navy as part of a programme to use underwater mammals as a special ops force. Fishermen in waters near the small Norwegian fishing village of Inga reported last week that a white beluga whale wearing a strange harness had begun to harass their fishing boats. “We were going to put out nets when we saw a whale swimming between the boats,” fisherman Joar Hesten told Norwegian broadcaster NRK. “It came over to us, and as it approached, we saw that it had some sort of harness on it.” The strange behaviour of the whale, which was actively seeking out the vessels and trying to pull straps and ropes from the sides of the boats, as well as the fact it was wearing a tight harness which seemed to be for a camera or weapon, raised suspicions among marine experts that the animal had been given military-grade training by neighbouring Russia. Inside the harness, which has now been removed from the whale, were the words “Equipment of St. Petersburg”. The fisherman said the whale was very tame and seemed used to human beings. “If this whale comes from Russia – and there is great reason to believe it – then it is not Russian scientists, but rather the navy that has done this,” said Martin Biuw of the Institute of Marine Research in Norway. Audun Rikardsen, professor at the department of arctic and marine biology at the Arctic University of Norway (UiT), told NRK: “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.” He said he had contacted Russian researchers who said the harnessed whale had nothing to do with them. “They tell me that most likely is the Russian navy in Murmansk,” said Rikardsen. In 1980s Soviet Russia, a programme saw dolphins recruited for military training, their razor-sharp vision, stealth and good memory making them them effective underwater tools for detecting weapons. This mammal programme closed in the 1990s. However, a 2017 report by TV Zvezda, a station owned by the defence ministry, revealed that the Russian navy has again been training beluga whales, seals and bottlenose dolphins for military purposes in polar waters. In the past three years, president Vladimir Putin has reopened three former Soviet military bases along its vast Arctic coastline. The recent research and training was done by Murmansk Sea Biology Research Institute in northern Russia on behalf of the navy to see if beluga whales could be used to “guard entrances to naval bases’” in arctic regions, “assist deepwater divers and if necessary kill any strangers who enter their territory”. Dolphins and seals meanwhile were trained to carry tools for divers and detect torpedoes, mines, and other ammunition which has sunk to depths of up to 120 metres. Government public records records show that the defence ministry purchased five bottle-nosed dolphins, aged between three and five, from Moscow’s Utrish Dolphinarium in 2016 at a cost of £18,000. During their research the Murmansk sea biology research institute concluded dolphins and seals were much more suited to the training and arctic climates than the beluga whales. The whales were deemed too sensitive to the cold and did not have the same “high professionalism” of seals, which had a far better memory for remembering oral commands.