(Newswire.net— May 1, 2019) — Oslo, Norway – A white whale was found, roaming near the coast of Norway, that had a camera holder strap around his head. Experts believe that it was given training by the Russian Navy for espionage.
The British BBC reports that the whale had approached Norwegian ships near the island of Ingoi in the Arctic, which is about 415 kilometers from Murmansk, where the Russian North Fleet has its headquarters.
Norwegian Professor of Arctic and marine biology at the University of Tromso, Professor Audun Rikardsen says that the “GoPro” holder installed on the beluga whale, is from St. Petersburg. According to Rikardsen, the camera holder was firmly connected around the head and front of the upper fins of the whale. The equipment is for the “GoPro” camera that was not on the holder.
There is no explanation, however, on which evidence Professor Rikardsen based his founding that the equipment belongs to Russians. Additionally he heard from a Russian colleague that they do not use GoPro cameras in their marine research.
“This is not something any Norwegian scientist has been doing. What we think is that this may come from Russia,” he said. “We know that in Russia they have kept domestic whales in captivity and that some of them have apparently escaped and often seek out our boats,” he added. Norwegian fishermen were able to take off the kit from the whale.
Martin Biuw of Norway’s Institute of Marine Research told the country’s NRK news outlet that there is a great reason to believe the whale comes from Russia, but he didn’t disclose another reason other than the fact that Russia has a marine military base nearby.
Colonel of the Russian army in retirement Viktor Baranec rejected Norway’s concern over the found whale. However, he did not deny that a beluga whale was able to escape from the Russian navy.
Baranec told the Russian media outlet “Speaking Moscow” whether the navy, if they really were using whales as spies, would have set up a mobile phone number with a message to call that number if an animal was found. He added that Russia has a Dolphin Training Center “to perform various tasks ranging from analysis of the seabed to the protection of a certain territory, attacks on foreign divers, placing mines on foreign ships.”
In 2014, the Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported that Russia was looking to buy five dolphins with “perfect teeth and killer instinct” for a training program designed to make the dolphins serve Russia’s military interests, The Moscow Times reports.
A 2017 report by the Russian Defense Ministry’s news channel Star (Zvezda) claimed that the Russian Navy was training white whales, seals and dolphins for Arctic military roles.