Jeanne Le Borgne
02/09/2024 at 13:16
Hvaldimir, a ten-year-old Beluga whale that had taken up residence in Norwegian waters, was found dead on Saturday, August 31. A necropsy of the animal will be carried out to try to determine the cause of its death.
Off the coast of Norway, where she had made her home, she was known as Hvaldimir. She died at the age of 15. On Saturday, August 31, a father and son who had gone fishing off the coast of southwest Norway discovered the whale’s carcass floating. Her body was brought to the port of Risavika, where it is expected to undergo a necropsy, according to public broadcaster NRK. However, she had “no obvious injuries.”
The beluga whale first appeared off the northern coast of Norway in 2019. At the time, it was wearing a harness that was identified as a camera mount. And because it was stamped with the words “Equipment St Petersburg,” it fueled speculation that the animal was a “spy whale” that had been trained in a tank by the Russian military.
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The Beluga was then nicknamed Hvaldimir, a combination of the Norwegian word for whale, “hval,” and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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A real mascot
Since its discovery, the animal – which was affectionately nicknamed “Hvaldi” to distract from its possible links to Putin – had taken up residence in Norwegian waters, moving from region to region depending on the season. The news of its death has therefore caused a wave of sadness among many residents, but especially within the associations that had ensured its protection since 2019.
“I am devastated and have cried a lot. We have feared this for years,” said Regina Crosby Haug, founder of the organization One Whale. “This was a healthy young whale with no signs of illness. I really hope that his death was not human-caused.”
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According to Al Jazeera, Hvaldimir was 4.2 metres long, weighed 1,225 kg and was believed to be between 14 and 15 years old. Belugas, which are found in the northern waters of Greenland, Norway and Russia, typically live between 40 and 60 years.
