Did Humans Kill a Whale Accused of Espionage?

It’s a story that could be torn from the pages of a spy thiller, incorporating a tense international border, a public spectacle and a charming stranger known by the nickname of Hvaldimir. And, like many a spy thriller, this story ended with a mysterious death: in this case, Hvaldimir’s own, with his body found floating off the Norwegian coast in late August.

Where this differs from most spy thrillers is that Hvaldimir happened to be a beluga whale. As Reuters recently reported, Hvaldimir first drew the public’s attention in 2019, when his distinctive appearance and a unique harness captivated the attention of area residents and environmental groups. His appeal even led to the formation of a nonprofit organization, OneWhale, dedicated to “protect Hvaldimir, while we advocate for his future in the wild with other belugas, so that he is no longer lost and alone.”

Reuters pointed out that the whale’s harness comnbined with Norway sharing a border with Russia prompted some observers to joke that the whale was a spy. And if you think, “Wait, a cetacean involved in international espionage — there’s something familiar about that,” that’s because that’s also the basic plot of the 1973 thriller The Day of the Dolphin.

That said, there’s no actual evidence that Hvaldimir was involved in anything dodgy — and according to Norwegian law enforcement, he also doesn’t appear to have been the victim of foul play. Reuters reports that an autopsy of the whale revealed a stick stuck in his mouth. “There is nothing in the investigations that have been carried out to establish that it is human activity that has directly led to Hvaldimir’s death,” local police said in a statement.

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It could impact conservation efforts

As for One Whale, the advocacy group is calling for a wider investigation. A representative of the organization said that they had seen bullet holes in Hvaldimir’s body. Earlier this month, One Whale and the Norwegian animal rights organization NOAH filed a police report calling for a full investigation into the whale’s death.