Breathe
By Mónica Hernández
It sounds like a movie script and will most likely become one. Hvaldimir, a white whale, a beautiful and playful beluga whale appeared in 2019 in Hammerfest, off the north coast of Norway, touching the boat of some fishermen with its nose. The fishermen thought they had hit the jackpot because the beluga whale let herself be petted. It looked like it had come to ask for food or help, and then they noticed that it had a harness around its body. They thought it had become entangled. Fishermen are used to cetaceans and know that trust is reciprocal. Because they tend to approach the boats on a regular basis. Some of them jumped into the water and removed the harness around his body. The contraption was snug and seemed custom-made. It was.
The mystery continued when the whale began to touch everything with its nose and to let itself be caressed. It became clear that it was not afraid of humans and that it knew how to coexist with them. What Hvaldimir wanted was food. He received his good fish fillets while he analyzed the harness, which clicked shut, like any dog harness. On the underside was a camera holder, which he didn't have. The most curious thing was a stamp that read "Team St. Petersburg". Thus was born the myth of the first Russian spy beluga whale.
The whale was loved by the inhabitants of Hammerfest: it allowed itself to be petted in exchange for fish and picked up objects thrown into the sea by the neighbors, like a well-trained dog. It was discovered because a curious person filming with his cell phone dropped it in the water and the whale returned it to him. The Norwegian city adopted it and named it Hvaldimir, a mix between hval (Norwegian for whale) and Vladimir, after the Russian president. Hammerfest welcomed a huge mascot. But the mystery continued.
Moscow never confirmed or denied that the whale was one of their own, but a scientist with access to powerful microscopes orbiting the Earth observed beluga whale "farms" or pens off the northwest coast of Russia, where many specimens are kept. Later came confirmation: Hvaldimir was an escaped spy.
The animal's life became endangered. Clearly captive-bred and alone, she was unable to get food on her own, so someone had to provide it for her. Many marine animal welfare organizations took an interest in her, but it was OneWhale who took it upon himself to supervise her. She was alone. She felt abandoned and only lived with humans. She began to behave in a worrying way. Hvaldimir was found dead on the beach last August 31, with no signs of violence. She was 14 or 15 years old and weighed more than 1,200 kilos.
The news is that a researcher with contacts in Russia, whom she will protect by withholding their names, confirmed what was suspected: a Russian beluga whale was lost around the same time that Hvaldimir appeared in Norway. Her name was Andruha and she had been captured in 2013. She was so smart that her trainers trusted her and took her out for "walks" in open water, so smart that she escaped to her freedom.
The story of the beluga whale seems tender and it is, but it has many readings. We are all smart and we all need confidence to swim, to explore, to discover. In adolescence we need to know that there is a harbor to which we can return whenever we stray. As adults we understand that freedom is as necessary as oxygen, and even whales know that. Later we learn that freedom has a price or many, and some can be high, very high. What that whale didn't know then is that freedom can be lonely. I am left with that we all need to be free, but we also need our pod. Our pods. I wish you lots of freedom and lots of pods to make port for this 2025.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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