After 4 years, the "spy beluga whale" reappeared. This is the second time it has appeared in people's eyes since it was discovered off the coast of Norway in 2019.
At that time it wore a harness with the inscription "St. Petersburg equipment". This suggests that it is like a police dog, most likely professionally trained for use in special operations. He is believed to be between 13 and 14 years old.
In the past few years, the beluga whale has spent most of its time in northern Norway. But the latest news shows that the beluga whale is rapidly sailing south and has appeared off the southwest coast of Sweden.
Beluga whales only live at high altitudes in the Arctic in areas such as Svalbard in Norway, Greenland, Canada and Russia. In the waters around Sweden, there are no known populations of beluga whales.
Therefore, marine biologists believe that it may be hormonally driven to find a mate. After all, most male beluga whales reach sexual maturity by the age of 15, apparently this spy beluga whale is just the age to mate.
What's even more interesting is that this isn't the first time spy Moby Dick has deserted. As early as the mid-90s of the 20th century, Turkey found beluga whales in the Black Sea, which is extremely unreasonable. Because these animals live in the Arctic, they are not usually found in warm waters.
And the beluga whale they found is very tame, and if you give it fish to eat, you can pat its head. It is even more important to note that its teeth have been filed.
Apparently this is beneficial for biting some larger object, such as a magnetic mine. This convinced Turkey that the beluga whale was a trained spy.
Sure enough, it was later learned that it was a storm that tore the blocking net of the Russian naval facilities and allowed the beluga whale to escape. But the Russian Navy quickly discovered the problem and called the beluga whale back.
But the beluga whale was clearly mischievous, because a year later it escaped again, and of course was called back again. It's just that if you think that only Russia trains sea creatures to be agents, you are very wrong.
In fact, the United States often does this kind of thing. Their naval forces have animal training bases in California and Hawaii. It's just that they prefer to use dolphins.
Dolphins, like beluga whales, are extremely intelligent marine mammals. They have their own language, they use tools, and experiments have even shown that dolphins can learn human sign language and communicate in both directions between humans and animals by using whistles.
And with sophisticated sonar systems, these marine mammals can spot objects up to 100 meters away and just a few centimeters wide. It's like finding a walnut kernel on a football field.
In contrast, a ship equipped with sonar must emit sound waves from multiple sources that can spread at least a few meters away. Therefore, in the face of the echolocation of these intelligent sea creatures, the best military sonar technology is also eclipsed.
And these sea creatures can easily dive hundreds of meters underwater, without decompression sickness like human divers.
Therefore, in order to find equipment lost at sea and identify intruders, as well as to detect mines buried on the bottom of the sea or floating in the water, tethered to anchors, etc. Since 1959, the U.S. Navy has been training dolphins to serve as "special forces."
Above: A dolphin named KDog, part of the U.S. Marine Corps Mammal Program, wears a positioning pin to clear mines in the Persian Gulf during the Iraq War.
Even in 2007, the U.S. Navy spent $14 million training marine mammals in object recovery and mine detection, and had a total of 75 trained dolphin agents.
In addition to dolphins, sea lions are also one of the domesticated underwater agents in the United States. Its advantage lies in excellent underwater vision, which can help detect enemy diving intruders.
In the United States, dolphins and sea lions are led by five teams of naval marine mammals. One team focused as a sentry on the defensive identification of diving intruders, three teams were trained to clear enemy mines, and another focused on the restoration of undersea facilities.
Above: Sea lions locate naval equipment on the seafloor and connect recovery lines.
The five teams are called MK 4, MK 5, MK 6, MK 7 and MK 8. The MK 4, 7 and 8 teams use dolphins, the MK 5 uses sea lions, and the MK6 uses both sea lions and dolphins.
They can be deployed to regional conflict or assembly sites around the world by ship, aircraft, helicopters and land vehicles within 72 hours of receiving an order.
Minesweeping dolphins are said to have been deployed to the Persian Gulf during the 2003 Iraq War. Effectively helped to remove more than 100 anti-ship mines and underwater booby-traps.
And the MK 6 served as a sentinel for the first joint deployment of sea lions and dolphins during the Vietnam War in 1971-1972, and in Bahrain from 1986 to 1987. However, it is pity these cute little animals that are forced to become victims of human wars.