A beluga whale believed to have been trained by the Russian navy has resurfaced off the coast of Sweden, according to a group tracking his travels. The whale first appeared in Norway in 2019 and led to speculation that it had been captured by the Russian navy.

Marine biologists from the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries removed an attached harness with an action camera mount and the words “Equipment St Petersburg” printed on the plastic clasps when he first showed up in Finnmark, Norway’s northernmost Arctic district.

The beluga was given the Norwegian moniker “Hvaldimir”—a play on the words “whale” and “dimir”—in reference to its purported connection to Russia.

The OneWhale organisation states on its website that “Hvaldimir is not a wild whale. He behaves like a lost or abandoned domesticated animal. Instead of avoiding people, he seeks them out.”

Hvaldimir spent more than three years slowly travelling down the top half of the Norwegian coastline before suddenly accelerating in recent months to cover the second half and continue to Sweden, according to the OneWhale initiative on Monday.

Western and Russian submarine movements are observed in the Barents Sea, a strategically important geopolitical region. Additionally, it serves as the entry point to the Northern Route, which speeds up nautical trips between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

While consuming wild fish beneath Norway’s salmon farms, Strand reported that the whale’s health “seemed to be very good” in recent years. However, his organisation had already seen considerable weight loss and was worried about Hvaldimir’s ability to obtain food in Sweden.

Oslo’s claims that the whale might be a “Russian spy” received no official response from Moscow.

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