The mystery of Hvaldimir and where the popular white whale came from may have been solved. A new BBC documentary about the whale Hvaldimir suggests that the whale may have been trained to guard naval bases and submarines. Hvaldimir was found by fisherman Joar Hesten at Rolvsøya in Finnmark in 2019. He jumped into the sea and freed the whale from the harness marked “St. Petersburg”. The white whale became world famous, and speculation ran high whether it was a specially trained spy. On Saturday 31 August this year, Hvaldimir was found dead outside Stavanger. Hvaldimir with fisherman Joar Hesten in Tufjord in Finnmark, when the whale was seen for the first time along the Norwegian coast. Photo: Håvard Hesten The filmmakers behind the documentary “Secrets of a Spy Whale” believe that their findings indicate that Hvaldimir was hired by Russia to guard underwater installations and/or submarines in the Arctic. – Our latest findings about the potential role that Hvaldimir had been trained for bring us closer to solving the mystery, says director Jennifer Shaw to The Guardian newspaper. Ukrainian marine biologist Olga Shpak worked in Russia from the 1990s to 2022. She tells the BBC that she has been told by Russian colleagues that the whale was part of the mammal division of the Russian navy. – Through vets and trainers, the message came that they were missing a whale called Andruha, says Shpak. The marine biologist says that the beluga was first caught in 2013, and must have been both smart, but also mischievous. Russia, for its part, has never officially confirmed whether Hvaldimir was a Russian-trained whale. Published 13.11.2024, at 18.08 Updated 13.11.2024, at 18.31
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BBC documentary suggests that Hvaldimir was part of the Russian navy – news Troms and Finnmark
