Bengaluru: An endearing video of a beluga whale playing fetch with a group of men in the Arctic Ocean went viral last week. But evidence has emerged to show that the mammal could be the alleged Russian spy whale that had previously made news for ‘defecting’ to Norway.
The spy whale was also filmed helping a woman retrieve her iPhone when it fell into the sea and in another instance when it ‘stole’ a GoPro camera only to return it later.
The latest clip, posted Friday, shows some men on a boat throwing a ball into the water which the beluga whale promptly brings back.
Goals: Playing fetch with a beluga whale pic.twitter.com/OfZOhHSAMj
— Sofía Martínez-Villalpando (@sofiabiologista) November 7, 2019
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Boat traced to Norway harbour
In the video, the men on board the boat have been identified as South African rugby fans who are celebrating the recent Springbok win. They are seen throwing an official 2019 Rugby World Cup ball into the ocean. The person behind the camera has been identified as James.
The man throwing the ball for the beluga is seen wearing a diving suit carrying the logo of the Danah Explorer – a marine research vessel which is currently stationed in Norwegian waters.
TimesLIVE has reported that it had traced the boat to a harbour at Tromsø in Norway, three days after the Rugby World Cup win. The whale also appears to have been trained to socialise with humans, it says.
There were also confirmations that the boat from which the clip was shot had the logo of a Cape Town boatbuilding company named Gemini Marine. A number of South African researchers work with the Danah Divers, associated with the Geneva-based Save Our Seas Foundation (SoS).
Hvaldimir refused to leave Norway
The whale suspected to be the Russian spy, a male named Hvaldimir, was traced earlier this year in the same waters of Norway. The name Hvaldimir is a portmanteau of ‘hval’, the Norwegian word for whale, and Vladimir [Putin] – the Russian President. It is the only known whale that interacts with humans in the area.
The mammal had seemingly ‘defected’ to Norway and refused to leave its waters. The whale also wore a harness that read “Equipment St. Petersburg” – which the Police Security Service of Norway confirmed was in its possession.
The Russian naval base of Murmansk is not too far away from the Norwegian coast where the whale was earlier found. Satellite photos have shown marine pens, that could house beluga whales, in the region.
Hvaldimir has been repeatedly sighted around the city of Hammerfest in Norway since it first made news. In one of the videos that surfaced earlier this year, the whale had retrieved 25-year-old Ina Mansika’s iPhone that had fallen into the water.
Hvaldimir has also repeatedly made contact with locals and fisherfolk, swimming next to boats and accepting food from tourists.
Beluga whales are social animals who travel in groups, but are known to be very shy and typically stay away from humans. Both Russian and American security agencies have been known to use cetaceans for military training.
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