"We were going to put out nets when we saw a whale swimming between the boats," fisherman Joar Hesten told Norwegian broadcaster NRK. "It came over to us, and as it approached, we saw that it had some sort of harness on it."
The strange behaviour of the whale, which was actively seeking out the vessels and trying to pull straps and ropes from the sides of the boats, as well as the fact it was wearing a tight harness which seemed to be for a camera or weapon, raised suspicions among marine experts that the animal had been given military-grade training by neighbouring Russia. Inside the harness, which has now been removed from the whale, were the words "Equipment of St. Petersburg".
The Russians are winning the race to weaponize sharks whales with laser beams.
A white beluga whale made a splash last week when it was found to be wearing a harness by fisherman in Norway.
Norwegian fishermen discovered a beluga whale wearing a harness off the country’s northern coast last week. The fishermen were fascinated with how tame it was, but there might be a good reason that it was comfortable around humans. Scientists from Norway’s Institute of Marine Research suspect the whale and its harness may be part of an operation cooked up by the Russian military.
Because of the reported tightness of the harnass, scientists were concerned that the whale has been wearing the harness for a very long time which could be dangerous for it.
The scientists tracked down the whale near the town of Ingoy and attempted to remove its harness. Just as the fishermen had reported, the harness looked way too tight, according to Norwegian news outlet NRK
Audun Rikardsen, a professor at the Department of Arctic and Marine Biology at the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsoe, northern Norway stated that the harness itself had a notation inside that reads "Equipment St. Petersberg" and includes a mount for an action camera (but no camera.) Audun contacted scholars in both Norway and Russia, all of which indicated it was not from research or a program any of them were aware of. Audun believes it was most likely the Russian Navy in Murmansk.
Russia does not have a history of using whales for military purposes but the Soviet Union had a full-fledged training program for dolphins.
The Soviet Union used a base in Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula during the Cold War to train the mammals for military purposes such as searching for mines or other objects and planting explosives. The facility in Crimea was closed following the collapse of the Soviet Union, though unnamed reports shortly after the Russian annexation of Crimea indicated that it had reopened.
While such things are normally kept below the surface, there have been inklings of similar efforts recently
The Russian Defense Ministry published a public tender in 2016 to purchase five dolphins for a training program. The tender did not explain what tasks the dolphins were supposed to perform, but indicated they were supposed to have good teeth. It was taken offline shortly after publication.
Additional Coverage Here.
Google translation of a more in depth Norwegian article here.
(Score: 4, Informative) by HiThere on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:25PM (1 child)
One thing we're doing is noticing that there's more than one St. Petersburg. And that the photos on the net are in the Roman alphabet rather than Cyrillic. So why *assume* it's Russian? (Check out the name of the Russian city on Wikipedia. It's varied a lot, but it's never been "St. Petersburg", though that's the common English name for it. In Roman letters the current name is "Sankt-Peterburg".
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by legont on Thursday May 02 2019, @12:10AM
Yep. St. Petersburg is, typically, in Florida. Russian one is either Sankt-Peterburg or Saint-Petersburg. Little details that lead to a spy catch. St. is way too American.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.