Fishermen in Artic Norway said they saw a beluga whale swimming with a harness on. Ree Wiig, one of the fishermen, tried to get the whale to come closer to his boat. He then proceeded to jump into the water to remove the harness from the whale. The norweagan military became very interested in this whale after the incident.
It may seem crazy to assume that Russia would be using belgua whales as spies, however this is not the first time a country has used marine animals to aid in their military. Both Russia and the United states have trained marine mamals for military use. The U.S. Navy even has a marine mamal program where it trains bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions to detect, locate, mark and recover object in harbors, coastal areas, and at depth in the open seas. In 2013 a U.S. navy dolphin even found a 130-year old torpedo. In 2016 the Russian Defense Ministry put out an ad look for three male and two female bottle nose dolphins and they offred at total of $24,000 to anyone who could obtain these creatures for them. Because of the history of marine mamal use in the military many believe that this beluga whale could be a part of a new Russian military program. Researchers say that the harness could have carried weapons or cameras.Audun Rikardsen, a professor at the Department of Arctic and Marine Biology at the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsoe, northern Norway, believes "it is most likely that Russian Navy in Murmansk" is involved. The Russian Defense Ministry has denied the existance of any such program. However, this does not mean that the program doesn't exist. It is possible that the future could be filled with marine mamal spies.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/04/29/norway-fears-alleged-russian-spy-whale-economists-wonder-if-kremlins-military-has-finally-peaked/?utm_term=.42ffc22db649
https://www.foxnews.com/tech/whale-mysterious-harness-russian-military-spy
This is really interesting! I remember seeing a tv show about how the US tried to train pigeons to fly bombs during WWII (I believe it was called "Project Pigeon"). While the government originally donated $25,000, the project was eventually shut down after the proven reliability of electronic guidance systems. However, I still find it interesting how often animals are used in war, and I'm very curious if the beluga whale really was a Russian spy.
ReplyDeleteIt is pretty crazy to see the extent to which modern warfare can push world government to gain a tactical edge over others. This was a very interesting article that raises more than a few questions about the russians.
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