A Suspected Russian Spy Whale Dove to the Bottom of the Ocean to Return a Woman's Phone

In April 2019, fishermen near Hammerfest, in Norway's Arctic north, spotted something unusual: a beluga whale wearing a tight-fitting harness with a mount for a camera. The harness had a plastic buckle stamped with the words "Equipment St. Petersburg."

The discovery triggered immediate speculation. Russia's navy has a known marine mammal program, training belugas and dolphins for military tasks. Norwegian intelligence took notice. Russian and Norwegian scientists both denied ownership of the whale. The media ran with the obvious headline: spy whale.

Hvaldimir

The whale was friendly. Unusually friendly. He approached boats, let people pet him, and seemed entirely comfortable around humans, all signs of an animal raised in captivity. Norwegians named him Hvaldimir, a portmanteau of "hval" (Norwegian for whale) and "Vladimir," after a certain Russian president.

Local fishermen removed the harness. Hvaldimir stayed. He became a fixture of the Norwegian coast, moving south from Hammerfest over the following months, always seeking out human company.

The Phone

On May 4, 2019, a woman named Ina Mansika was standing on a dock near Hvaldimir when her phone slipped from her jacket pocket and plunged into the frigid water. She assumed it was gone forever.

Hvaldimir dove. A few moments later, he surfaced with the phone in his mouth and delivered it back to Mansika. Her friend Isa Opdahl was filming the entire encounter on her own phone and captured every second. The video went viral on Instagram.

"I'm sure that it was intentional," Mansika's mother Lisa later told reporters. "They watch us all the time."

A Sad Ending

Hvaldimir was found dead in Norwegian waters on August 31, 2024. Animal rights groups initially alleged he had been shot. However, the official Norwegian police autopsy found no projectiles and attributed his death to a bacterial infection, likely from a wound in his mouth. He was approximately 15 years old.

Whether he was ever actually a Russian spy remains unconfirmed. What is confirmed is that he returned a stranger's phone from the bottom of the ocean, unprompted, on camera, and looked pleased about it.