Whale was Detained in Norway on Suspicion of Being a Russian Spy

A whale found on the coast of Norway, carrying a special Russian harness and probably trained by the Russian navy, said a Norwegian expert, quoted by the BBC.

Marine biologist Professor Awund Rickardsen explained that the harness has a GoPro camera holder and a label that points to St. Petersburg. Norwegian fisherman managed to remove it from the whale.

The trained beluga repeatedly approached the Norwegian boats near Ingoa, an arctic island about 415 km from Murmansk, where the northern fleet of Russia is located. This kind of whales are born in the waters of the Arctic.

The Norwegian NRK publishes a video recording showing the removing of the harness.

Prof. Rickardsen told the BBC that the harness "was attached very tightly around his head, in front of his chest fins."

There was a holder for GoPro, but not a camera, notes BNT.

A Russian colonel from the reservation he had previously written about the marine use of marine mammals has rejected Norway's worry about the beluga. But he did not deny that he had escaped from the Russian fleet.

"If we have used this animal for espionage, do you really think we will attach a cell phone number to the message: please call this number?", Said Colonel Victor Barantez.

"We have military dolphins for fighting roles, we do not hide it," he said.

Until now, it can be asserted that both Russia and the United States used during the Cold War trained dolphins for various combat activities. The Russian base is in Sevastopol, which was under Ukrainian control until 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea. The American naval base for mammals was in San Diego.