Is This Whale a Russian Spy?

Both Russia and the US have a long history using marine mammals for military purposes. Could this whale, famous on social media, be a spy?

If you happen to live in the Norwegian seaside community of Hammerfest, you might’ve seen this whale. But even if you don’t live above the Arctic Circle, if you spend any amount of time on social media, there’s a good chance you’ve seen this whale anyway.

It’s a Beluga whale. His name is Hvaldimir. The videos he has starred in have received millions of views And he might be a Russian spy.

Yes, a spy whale.

See, in the spring of 2019 Hvaldimr was first spotted off the coast of Norway by a crew of fishermen. He was sporting a harness with a camera mount and he seemed to be trying to remove it. Some good samaritans helped free him from it and found an inscription on the harness saying “Equipment of St. Petersburg” — As in St. Petersburg, Russia. This led people to speculate that Hvaldimir might be a military asset of the Russian government. In fact, that’s how he got his name. Hval means “whale” in Norwegian. A newspaper began calling him Hvaldimir — a play off the name Vladimir, as in Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation.