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A beluga whale, believed to have been trained by the Russian navy, has surfaced for the first time in three years. This time the animal was observed off the Swedish coast, reports the British “Guardian”.

The whale first sparked speculation in Norway in 2019 due to its strange behavior. He also wore armor with Russian inscriptions on it. Norway then accused Moscow of serving as a Russian spy.

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Now marine experts are puzzling over the whale’s behavior again: since 2019, the animal has been slowly moving along the Norwegian coast towards Sweden. In recent months it has suddenly gained momentum. The whale turned up last Sunday in Hunnebostrand off the southwest coast of Sweden.

“Don’t know why he has become so fast now”

“We don’t know why it’s gotten so fast now,” Sebastian Strand, a marine biologist with the organization OneWhale, told the Guardian. It is especially strange that the whale “disappeared very quickly from its natural habitat”.

The whale’s unusual behavior may be due to a natural cause: “It could be hormones prompting it to look for a mate. Or loneliness, as belugas are a very social species – it could be looking to other beluga whales,” Strand said. The animal is estimated to be 13 to 14 years old. According to Strand, hormones also play a role.

The closest beluga population is in the Svalbard archipelago, halfway between Norway’s north coast and the North Pole. The whale is believed to have had no contact with other belugas since arriving in Norway in April 2019.

Whales made work difficult for fishermen in Norway

Norwegian fishermen off the coast of Finnmark sounded the alarm in 2019: a beluga whale with a strange harness had been harassing their boats. Marine researchers also noticed unusual behavior: the marine mammal actively seeks out ships and even pulls out objects and ropes.

Soon after, the armor the whale was wearing was also removed. According to a media report from The Guardian, there was a strange imprint on the inside of the tire: “Equipment of St. Petersburg”. A camera was also attached to the holder.

Norway then turned on the Russian navy. The country accused Russia of training whales to become special forces and using them as weapons. Moscow has never officially responded to speculation that the whale could be a “Russian spy”. However, Russian experts stressed that the whale is unlikely to be used by the Russian military, but likely for scientific purposes.

Use of Dolphins and Seals in the Russian Army

However, the use of marine mammals in the Russian military is not new. The Soviet Union trained dolphins for reconnaissance as early as the 1980s. The program was discontinued in the 1990s, but a 2017 report by Russian TV channel TV Zvezda documented seals, beluga whales and porpoises being trained for military purposes in the Arctic Ocean.

Beluga whales in particular should also be used to guard the entrances to the naval bases, the Guardian reported. The animals are very territorial and can kill strangers who enter their territory.

On the other hand, dolphins and seals would have been trained, among other things, to carry tools for divers and to detect torpedoes, mines and other munitions. Beluga whales are considered to be very sensitive to cold and cannot remember as many human commands as, say, seals. (t-online, aj)