When a lone beluga whale began rubbing up against Norwegian fishing boats in April 2019, a few alarm bells should have started ringing – not just for conservationists, but also among the suits on the top floor at the headquarters of the Norwegian Intelligence Service in Lutvann.
First, the whale didn’t seem to have a pod. Toothed whales (which include beluga, dolphins and orca among other species) are not naturally solitary. They don’t roam the high seas alone. They are pack animals – social mammals that move in pods and can sense how another member of their group is feeling (not just physically, but emotionally) through echolocation. Spot one alone and that should be your first indication that something is up. Second, pod or not, he was a good deal further south of the high arctic than he should have been. Third, he appeared to be wearing a harness, which was causing him some distress – enough that he seemed to be approaching boats which would ordinarily scare belugas (white whales have a bloody history of being hunted) to try to get the harness off.
