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In the most important turn of events in the week, the alleged Russian-trained beluga “spy-whale” appears to have defected to Norway.
After it was discovered near the northern Norwegian harbor town of Tufjord on April 29th, it now refused to stray more than a few miles away from it.
It further appears to be entertaining locals with tricks.
“He’s so comfortable with people that when you call him he comes right up to you,” Linn Sæther, a resident of Tufjord on the Arctic island of Rolvsøya.
The Norwegian outlet launched a poll to name the marine mammal.
The name options have some quite witty ones such as: Agent James Beluga, White Russian, Hvaldimir and Fridom.
In the interview, Sæther said locals had been able to pet the whale, which was found at sea by Norwegian fishermen wearing a harness.
The beluga performs twirls and leaps and happily retrieves plastic rings, she said, before swimming up to the dockside with its mouth open, as if looking for a fish in reward. “It is a fantastic experience, but also a tragedy,” Sæther said.
“It’s clearly used to being given tasks and having something to do,” she said. “It reacts when you call it or splash your hands in the water. You can see it’s been trained to fetch and bring back whatever is thrown for it.”
Tor Arild Guleng told the Norwegian outlet the whale had followed his boat from Rolvsøya back to Hammerfest. “It followed me, like an obedient dog without a lead,” Guleng said. “No wild animal seeks you out, sticks its head up and allow you to stroke its nose.”
The harness apparently had a mount, which could potentially be used to place a camera or even a weapon. It had a stamp on it “Equipment St. Petersburg.”
Thus, speculation immediately started circulating that it escaped from a Russian military facility. Audun Rikardsen of Tromsø’s Arctic University of Norway even alleged that the Russian Northern Fleet could be involved.
The Russian defense ministry has denied running a sea mammal special operations programme. But, if Russia allegedly had a spy-whale facility, why would they admit to having it?
It could potentially also be a guard-whale for “evil-mastermind Putin’s” Finnish island secret military base.
It’s also not completely out of the question for the whale to be trained by Russia to infiltrate Norwegian society and then try to disrupt it from the inside. Similarly, to what the US company Mission Essential does by hiring linguists that can “blend in with the local populace.”
An alternative theory, which would prove quite mundane is that the whale somehow got to Norway by escaping from a marine park which has captive whales and dolphins in St. Petersburg, Florida. Since, even if Russia had trained a whale to be a spy and put a harness on it, why would it stamp its equipment at all, and even if it did: Why stamp it in English?
In addition, the beluga would frequently go near the pier to wait for a fish after performing several tricks, which would mean its either trained to do tricks and get a treat, or the Russian spy mammal trainers did a very poor job. Marine biologists said that the whale shouldn’t be fed too much, because it needs to get used to finding its own food and living in the open sea.
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I’m sure that right now the Pentagon is already lobbying for a budget of billions of dollars for their own whale-training program.
Yours is fake news, Vertov. :)
The US are already spending billions of dollars in training White Elephants for covert actions.
The US already has a Whale Programme, its called the ‘Pompeo Pod’.
I wish that old mental fuck is not dropping them in Africa.Because their will Trumble us to death if that fat fuck blow his false Trumpet.We blacks we sell Elephant and Rhino tusk to Chinese.If Chinese peach we dont get a cent.
How is this news when even in 2000 the BBC reported that Iran had bought some of the trained dolphins and Beluga whales? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/670551.stm And the US has has a ‘secret’ program since 1967. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_Marine_Mammal_Program#History
I’m sure they didn’t do it on porpoise.
That bought tears of laughter to my old eyes. Thank you.
If it is from St. Petersburg Fl, it wouldn’t it be chipped?
This is a particularly mean spirited part of the west’s information war against Russia, Putin is a great conservationist in Russia so the NATO goons feel compelled to portray him as the exact opposite.
Putin is a fukkin idiot dufus .
St. Petersburg, Russia, dear, on the Baltic Sea.
Is there a marine park in St Petersburg, Florida?
That whale is much smarter than the average Russian no doubt .
Looks like your are not that bright yourself.
Dead donkey is much smarter than you braindead shiteating loser troll, and your entire mutant ‘nation’. Amoebas are more intelligent than you, you’re a fucking virus.
The US military has been using beluga whales, dolphins and sea lions for various search, military and scientific projects since the 60’s.
It’s “belukha” not “beluga” actually. Beluga is a sturgeon, belukha is a whale. Now i know what happened to Skripal. They’ve turned him into a whale. This one. Wows to the witness protection programme!
Most probably this is just a Norwegian whale and piss-poor Norwegian propaganda.
“It’s also not completely out of the question for the whale to be trained by Russia to infiltrate Norwegian society and then try to disrupt it from the inside.” What if the whale is secretly deploying spying devices from a stash on the ocean floor. Most likely this would be done at night, by day it fools the locals by doing tricks for food. LOL
Whale preferring US democracy because it seems fishy?