OSLO: Animal rights teams mentioned on Wednesday (Sep 4) that gunfire killed a beluga whale that rose to fame in Norway after its uncommon harness sparked suspicions the creature had been educated by Russia as a spy.
The organisations NOAH and OneWhale mentioned that they had filed a grievance with Norwegian police asking them to open a prison investigation.
Nicknamed “Hvaldimir” in a pun on the Norwegian phrase for whale (hval) and its purported ties to Moscow, the white beluga first appeared off the coast in Norway’s far-northern Finnmark area in 2019.
A star in Norway, it was found dead last Saturday in a bay on the nation’s southwestern coast.
Its physique was transported to an area department of the Norwegian Veterinary Institute on Monday for an post-mortem.
The report is anticipated “inside three weeks”, a spokeswoman for the institute mentioned.
“He had a number of bullet wounds round his physique,” Regina Crosby Haug, the pinnacle of OneWhale, which was based to trace the beluga, informed AFP after viewing Hvaldimir’s physique on Monday.
Images revealed on Wednesday by the 2 organisations confirmed what gave the impression to be bullets lodged in holes within the animal’s blood-streaked physique.
“The accidents on the whale are alarming and of a nature that can’t rule out a prison act – it’s stunning,” NOAH director Siri Martinsen mentioned in a press release.
“Given the suspicion of a prison act, it’s essential that the police are concerned rapidly,” she mentioned.
Police confirmed that they had acquired a grievance and mentioned they’d look into the matter “to find out whether or not there are cheap motives to launch an investigation”.
The Veterinary Institute informed AFP that “if one thing suspicious had been to return up” below the post-mortem, “police would learn”.
When Hvaldimir was present in 2019, Norwegian marine biologists eliminated a man-made harness with a mount fitted to an motion digicam and the phrases “Tools St Petersburg” printed in English on its plastic clasps.
Norwegian officers mentioned Hvaldimir may need escaped an enclosure and been educated by the Russian navy, as he gave the impression to be accustomed to people.
Moscow has by no means issued any official response to hypothesis that he may very well be a “Russian spy”.