A beluga whale that the Western media once half-seriously branded a “Russian spy” likely died of an infection, Norwegian police have announced, ruling out initial suspicions that the celebrity animal had been shot.
The sea mammal, nicknamed Hvaldimir, was found dead in Risavika Bay in southern Norway in late August. The animal rights groups OneWhale and NOAH then filed a complaint with Norwegian police, arguing that multiple circular holes in the whale’s body indicated that shots had been fired at it.
However, an autopsy carried out by the Norwegian Veterinary Institute suggested that no foul play was involved in Hvaldimir’s demise, police said on Friday.
The cetacean likely passed away due to a bacterial infection, which developed in a wound caused by a stick that got stuck in the creature’s mouth, Amund Preede Revheim, who heads the North Sea and Environment Section of the police in south-west Norway, said.
As for the circular holes, they were likely made by the birds that consumed the whale’s carcasses, he explained.
“As there is nothing in the investigations to indicate that Hvaldimir was killed in an illegal manner, the police see no reason to start a probe into the whale’s death,” the officer said. The complaint by the activists has been dropped, he added.
Revheim also complained that it was “difficult” for the Norwegian Veterinary Institute to carry out the autopsy because “many of the whale’s organs were very rotten.”
The celebrity white beluga whale was first spotted off the coast in Norway’s far-northern Finnmark region back in 2019. At the time of its discovery, the animal allegedly wore an action camera harness labeled ‘Equipment St. Petersburg.’ This fact led to wild speculation in the Western media that the sea creature was actually a “Russian spy whale” on a mission. Some, however, suggested the animal was actually a trained “therapy whale” that had somehow escaped its enclosure.
The whale was nicknamed ‘Hvaldimir’ – a play on the Norwegian word for whale (hval) and the name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The marine mammal was known for being friendly to humans and was often seen approaching boats and interacting with those aboard.