The small Norwegian village of Inga has been catapulted into the public eye after fisherman were mildly harassed by a beluga whale wearing a harness.

Initially, experts assumed that the adorable whale was actually a highly-trained Russian spy whale from a base in Murmansk.

Now Dmitry Glazov, a Russian scientist and deputy head of the beluga white whale programme, says that the whale could have come from one of three organisations, not necessarily military, that train marine mammals, including belugas, for various tasks including finding objects.

According to the Guardian, another man, Morton Vikeby, thinks the whale might not be a military whale at all, but a therapy whale not unlike a similar whale that he saw at a diving centre in northern Russia.

That whale, named Semyon, lived in a watery enclosure in Russia’s Murmansk region, and sometimes entertained tour groups of children with mental disabilities.

“Maybe it wasn’t the same whale but it acted the same way,” said Vikeby, a former Norwegian consul to the city of Murmansk, in a telephone interview. “The whale has been accused of espionage. I see it as my big purpose to defend him.”

Bless.

The tame beluga found in Norway has become a local celebrity. They’ve named him “Hvaldimir”, a portmanteau of the Norwegian word for whale, ‘hval’, and the popular Russian name, Vladimir.

So far no one has come forward to claim Hvaldimir, who seems to be enjoying himself in his chosen home.

[source:guardian]