Russian spy whale becomes Norway's most eligible bachelor, returns lost iPhones

In April 2019, fishermen in Hammerfest in northern Norway noticed a beluga whale trying to free itself from a camera harness. They helped remove it and found the words “Equipment St. Petersburg” printed on the strap. The whale had likely escaped from a Russian naval training programme and showed no interest in leaving. Norway held a public vote and named him Hvaldimir, a combination of the Norwegian word for whale and the first name of the Russian president. A few weeks later, two friends went to the harbour to see him. One of them, Ina Mansika, leaned over the dock and her phone slipped from her jacket pocket into the water. They assumed it was gone. Then Hvaldimir dove down, came back up with the phone in his mouth and gently held it out until Ina could take it from him. Her friend Isa filmed the whole thing and it went viral overnight. He also returned a kayaker’s GoPro camera, played fetch with a rugby ball tossed from a boat, and once spent an afternoon teasing a wild seagull into dropping fish it had caught. Belugas are normally shy around humans but Hvaldimir would swim up to anyone, nudge their hands and wait to have his chin scratched. He passed away in August 2024 near Stavanger at around 15 years old.