The white beluga dubbed ‘Hvaldimir’ was first noticed in 2019 and considered Russian
The Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries has warned the residents of Oslo to maintain their distance from “Hvaldimir,” the white whale who seems to have chosen the fjord as his everlasting house after touring down the coast of Norway in 2019.
“We particularly encourage folks in boats to maintain a good way to keep away from the whale being injured or, within the worst case, killed by boat visitors,” fisheries director Frank Bakke-Jensen said on Wednesday.
Norway considers beluga whales a protected species. Bakke-Jensen believes the whale “now resides within the inside Oslofjord,” a densely populated space that raises the danger of damage because of human contact. He stated that Hvaldimir has suffered “minor accidents” from contact with boats earlier than.
The whale first attracted consideration in April 2019, when it appeared on the northern coast of Norway and stored approaching fishermen’s boats. The marine mammal had worn a digicam harness labeled ‘Tools St. Petersburg’, resulting in speculation that it was a “Russian spy.”
The pleasant whale was quickly dubbed Hvaldimir, after the Norwegian phrase for whale and the play on the identify of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
One Norwegian outlet reported a theory that Hvaldimir was the truth is Russian – a beluga named Semyon, from a marine sanctuary coaching whales to play with youngsters for remedy functions. Whereas that will clarify the whale’s friendliness to people, nobody has ever been capable of affirm the declare.
That has not stopped the net jokes about Hvaldimir’s spy mission for Moscow, particularly because the USS Gerald Ford, a US Navy nuclear-powered supercarrier, has additionally simply arrived at Oslo harbor.
Norwegian authorities appear content material to let Hvaldimir roam free in the interim.
“We have now all the time communicated that the whale in query is a free-living animal and we see no purpose to seize it and put it behind bars,” stated Bakke-Jensen. “Now that it’s in a extra weak space and entry to meals could also be restricted, we are going to take into account totally different measures. However it’s too early to say something particular about that but.”
