No sign ‘Russian spy’ whale shot dead: Norway police

AFP | Oslo, Norway

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Police in Norway said yesterday that foul play was not suspected in the death of a beluga whale whose unusual harness had sparked suspicions it had been trained by Russia as a spy.

Nicknamed "Hvaldimir" in a pun on the Norwegian word for whale ("hval") and its purported ties to Moscow, the white beluga first appeared off the coast in Norway's far-northern Finnmark region in 2019.

Quickly becoming a celebrity in Norway, he was found dead on August 31 in a bay on the country's southwestern coast.

Last week, animal rights' organisations NOAH and One Whale claimed the whale had been shot dead and filed a police report.

With an estimated age of 15 to 20 years, Hvaldimir was relatively young for a beluga, which typically live up to 35 years, according to environmental group WWF.

The Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted an autopsy, and police said that based on its preliminary report there was nothing to indicate "human activity" was responsible for Hvaldimir's death.

It suggested the beluga may have died of starvation, and said it would not launch an investigation.

"There is nothing in the autopsy that indicates that Hvaldimir was shot," police official Amund Preede Revheim said in a statement. He said the whale had "totally superficial" injuries.

"One of the wounds is a little deeper, but these injuries did not affect any vital organs and were not of a deadly nature," he added. Police did not provide a cause of death, but said a stick 35-centimetres (14 inches) long and three-centimetres wide was found lodged in his mouth.

"The autopsy revealed that his stomach was empty.

In addition, most of his organs were deteriorated," Revheim said.