Mystery mega yacht impounded by Italian authorities

Yahoo – AFP, May 6, 2022 

'Scheherazade' worth an estimated $700 million, is the subject of a probe
into its ownership by Italy's financial police (AFP/Federico SCOPPA)

The Italian authorities on Friday impounded a mega yacht at the centre of a mystery over its ownership as speculation swirled it might even belong to the Russian president. 

"Scheherazade", worth an estimated $700 million, has been the subject of a probe into its ownership by Italy's financial police. 

The Italian probe has helped "establish significant economic and business links between the person who officially possesses the Scheherazade and eminent people in the Russian government," as well as Russian figures sanctioned by the West following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Italian ministry of economy and finance said in a statement. 

Following the probe, "the minister of Economy and Finance, Daniele Franco, has signed a decree impounding" the yacht, the statement added. 

It had been berthed for several months for maintenance work at a shipyard at the Marina di Carrara, within the western seaside town of Massa. 

But the yacht was back on the water and seemed about to set sail on Friday, an AFP photographer said before the Italian government statement was issued. 

The 140-metre yacht features two helipads, a swimming pool and a movie theatre,
according to the SuperYachtFan website (AFP/Federico SCOPPA)

But the mystery remains unresolved: who does "Scheherazade" belong to? A Russian oligarch? Vladimir Putin? 

Built by Germany's Luerssen in 2020, the 140-metre yacht features two helipads, a swimming pool and a movie theatre, according to the SuperYachtFan website, which researches yachts and their owners. 

Italian police had said they were doing their best to identify the owner. 

"It's not always easy to attribute ownership" of a yacht, a source close to the Italian probe told AFP in late March. 

The same source said earlier Friday there was "nothing new" in the investigation. 

Researchers at the anti-corruption foundation of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny link the yacht to Putin. 

They cited a crew list in their possession that included several members of Russia's federal protective service, charged with Putin's security. 

But the Italian Sea Group said in a statement the yacht was "not attributable to the property of Russian President Vladimir Putin". 

The shipyard's owner said its assessment was based on "the documentation in its possession and following the findings of the checks carried out by the relevant authorities".

Russian Arctic sets 'fantastical' heat records: weather chief

Yahoo – AFP, June 30, 2020

Russia struggles with wildfires in its remote taiga every summer (AFP Photo/
Ekaterina ANISIMOVA)

Moscow (AFP) - The Russian Arctic set record temperatures in June that sparked abnormal tundra fires, the head of Russia's weather service said Tuesday, blaming climate change for the "fantastical" anomalies.

Russia's northern territories, including parts of Yakutia region which borders the Arctic ocean, have faced a heat wave in recent weeks, and villages in the remote tundra are battling wildfires with some districts declaring a state of emergency.

"We had extremely anomalous weather" in June, Roman Vilfand said, adding that "previous records were broken easily".

He noted one record in particular in the Arctic town of Verkhoyansk, where temperatures reached 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit)on June 17.

"That is a fantastical degree," Vilfand said at a press conference, noting that Verkhoyansk previously set the record for the lowest temperature with minus 67.8 degrees Celsius.

Vilfand said the trend of hotter temperatures and sunnier weather was caused by climate change and a change in atmospheric circulation, with polar anticyclones -- phenomena that bring sunny skies -- becoming more frequent.

Map of Russia showing fires in Sibera during the last 24 hours (AFP Photo/

Patricio ARANA)

The lack of clouds, in turn, causes the ground to heat up during the Arctic summer, he said.

Previously "meteorologists didn't note fire hazardous situations in the polar regions often," he said, but this is now changing due to these patterns.

"It's an astonishing situation. Anticyclones happen more and more often and you can never predict where they are going to occur," he said.

"This is the most important problem of climate change and a result of climate change."

The resulting fires contribute to the cycle of warming since ash darkens the surface of ice that previously reflected the sun, causing it to melt instead, Vilfand said.

Russia is warming 2.5 times faster than the rest of the world due to its vast Arctic territories.

Though President Vladimir Putin has noted the benefits of warmer temperatures opening up transportation routes and energy resources, climate change is a huge hazard for the country's infrastructure built on permafrost.

Russia also struggles with wildfires in its remote taiga every summer as well as catastrophic floods.

Related Articles:

South Pole warming three times faster than rest of Earth: study

20TH KRYON SUMMER LIGHT CONFERENCE, US (7), June 2-4, 2017 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Text version "The State of the Earth")

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

(Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Weather

Let's talk about the weather. We retreat to exactly what we told you before in this very chair. The water cycle is a cooling cycle, not a heating cycle. You're going to have more severe winters and storms. It's going to get colder. But it gets warmer before it gets colder. That is the cycle, and it has always been the cycle. You can see it in the rings of the trees and the cores of the ice. Don't let your scientists pull the political wool over your eyes for their own purposes. Start seeing these things for what they are. It's a recurring cycle based on four Earth alignment attributes, including the wobble (the precession). You're in this cycle. Prepare.

The beginnings of it will be with you from now at least until the end of the 2012 36-year window, and you can watch it work. The first thing that happens is that the ice melts at the poles, but not completely. It's the way it has happened before. As the redistribution of weight from the poles to the oceans of the earth takes place, the weight is redistributed to the crust, and that creates earthquakes. And the earthquakes that will be the most powerful are the ones that are closest to the poles. We told you that some time ago. So it's not a mystery that suddenly you have some of the most powerful earthquakes that you've ever had. Not only that, but a cooling ocean creates larger storms.

What do the conspiracists do with all this? "See? We're doomed. Here it comes," they say. "Here it comes! The end is here!" Twenty-two years ago, we gave you the information that is happening today. We told you about the weather. We told you to get ready for it, but we still haven't told you why the water cycle is needed. We've hinted at it since it is very controversial, and we'll lose many readers right here and now. Here's the prediction: The scientists are going to laugh and biologists are going to scratch their heads and roll their eyes.

The Refreshing of the Cycle of Life

When you change the temperature of the waters of the planet, it changes the life cycle of the ocean and it eventually renews itself. The life cycle of the planet has a limit to its viability over time. There has to be a refreshing of the very cycle of life, and this is what the water cycle does. Are there any places you've seen too many fish lately? Yes. Millions of salmon in the north. Odd that it was in Alaska, isn't it? Alaska is very close to the poles where the water temperature is being felt first. Oh, again the experts will tell you that this is not the reason. It's about hatcheries and rivers. But nobody predicted this, did they? Science is fast to give you reasons, but slow to give you logic in advance. They always seem to be surprised.

We are saying things we haven't said before. Again, watch for this, an actual change in the life cycle of the planet's oceans because of the water temperature shift. Biologists are going to have to start redesigning the paradigm of how everything works, including reefs, ocean bottoms, and how plankton survive and reproduce. Listen, this is not the first time that the life cycle has been refreshed! But again, this may take generations of humanity to complete. In the process, you may again lose species. This is normal. Gaia is slow, and Humans are impatient. Your textbooks may someday tell of how naive humanity was back in 2011 when they tried to blame weather changes on everything but a natural cycle. Now you know why there is a water cycle.

So what does that tell you about Gaia? Gaia is beginning the cycle of refreshing life on over-fished oceans. It tells you that in the cracks, there is love and caring about the Humans who live on the earth. There's a reason you're here. There's a plan here, and a benevolent Universe and quantum energy with intelligent design. All is there for you, precious, sacred Human Being. …”

Temperatures rise across Europe's far north

Yahoo – AFP, Helene DAUSCHY, January 7, 2020

The normally frigid fjords in Norway's Arctic Circle in winter are experiencing
temperatures higher than normal this year (AFP Photo/Olivier MORIN)

Stockholm (AFP) - From the Norwegian fjords to Russian cities, record warm temperatures with less snow and rain have left the far north of Europe still waiting for the Arctic winter.

Sunndalsora, a small town in western Norway registered 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees Fahrenheit) last Thursday, a temperature never seen before in the Nordic country at this time of year.

A local mayor marked the new year by filming himself swimming in water much colder than the air.

The temperate climate is due to warm winds which are expected to sweep through the region again this week, according to Norwegian forecasters. They added however these winds are not unusual and such warm spells are not necessarily linked to climate change.

Still temperatures have been higher than normal for the season.

In Sweden, temperatures over the past few days have climbed some 5C degrees higher than normal in the south of the Scandinavian country, and 10C degrees higher in the north.

"On 2 January three stations in central Sweden reported their highest January temperatures since 1971," Sverker Hellstrom, climatologist at the Swedish meteorological institute told AFP.

In Sweden's Lapland, the owner of a dog sled business claimed it has been one of the warmest winters in decades, with huge swings in temperature.

Donald Eriksson pointed out that on January 7 it was minus 36C degrees but on Tuesday it was above freezing at 1C degree.

"The trend is clear: in the last 15 years, and especially in the last 10, winter has been shortened by a month and a half on average," Eriksson told AFP by phone.

Shorter winters

In southern Finland where temperatures in December were 4.5C degrees higher than normal, winter has not even begun yet, according to the local weather service.

Meteorological estimates indicate that in January in the region, there will not be a real winter, defined as the number of days with below freezing temperatures.

Oslo, for example, has lost 21 days of winter over the last three decades, forecasters said, predicting that shorter winters will continue.

"By 2050, more than one million Norwegians will live in areas with less than a month of winter," said researcher Reidun Gangsto Skaland.

In the heart of the Arctic, the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard is experiencing its 109th straight month of temperatures above normal, according to the Norwegian meteorological institute.

It is the same situation in neighbouring Russia.

On Tuesday, it was 0C degrees in Murmansk, the world's biggest city above the Arctic Circle, which is about 6C higher than the seasonal norm, the national weather centre said.

The forecast for Wednesday is for even warmer temperatures reaching 2C degrees in Murmansk and 4C degrees in Saint Petersburg, Russia's second city, which would be 12C degrees higher than normal.

But the northeast of Russia is not alone. "All of the country has been registering positive anomalies" in temperature, the director of the national meteorlogical service, Roman Vilfand, told the Ria Novosti news agency.

He pointed to some parts of Siberia, one of the coldest places in the world where temperatures have reached 20C degrees higher than normal.

Caviar 'queen': Chinese roe reigns around the world

Yahoo – AFP, Ludovic EHRET, December 12, 2019

A sturgeon at a fishery run by Chinese caviar company Kaluga Queen in Qiandao
lake, Zhejiang province (AFP Photo/WANG ZHAO)

The caviar on the menu of Michelin-starred restaurants may come from an unexpected place: China.

The country has endured embarrassing food scandals in recent years, but its sturgeon eggs have gained the respect of caviar connoisseurs around the world.

It has also become pricier for US buyers as Chinese caviar is among the slew of products hit with 25 percent tariffs in the US-China trade war.

The bulk of China's production comes from a picturesque lake ringed by mountains in eastern Zhejiang province where industry leader Kaluga Queen breeds the giant fish.

The brand was created in 2005 by experts who worked for the ministry of agriculture and it now produces more than a third of the world's caviar, making China the global leader.

The company's sturgeon farm is a 20-minute boat ride away from the shore in Qiandaohu, or Thousands Islands Lake.

Qiao Yuwen, a breeder, stood at the edge of the pools where the animals live until they are between the ages of seven and 15.

The biggest sturgeons can grow to be four meters (13 feet) long and weigh 300 kilos (660 pounds).

An employee of Chinese caviar company Kaluga Queen cuts open a sturgeon 

for its roe (AFP Photo/WANG ZHAO)

"They're like our babies. We see them from when they're very young, so it's hard when they are sent to be slaughtered," Qiao said.

"But there's also, of course, the satisfaction of having contributed to making an exceptional product," he said before throwing pellets containing shrimp, peas and vitamins to the fish.

'Price of a Ferrari'

For a long time, Iran and Russia fished sturgeon in the wild in the Caspian Sea.

But the fish population was nearly decimated by overfishing and poaching after the Soviet Union, which had regulated fishing, fell in 1991.

Sturgeon fishing in the Caspian Sea was banned in 2008 while sturgeon farms have sprung up everywhere, with Italy, France and China among the world leaders in the industry.

Kaluga Queen has 300 employees looking after some 200,000 sturgeons.

Once they reach sexual maturity, females are fished out and taken to a laboratory where they are stunned before their bellies are sliced open to extract the black eggs.

The roe is then washed, sorted, salted and placed in boxes.

Kaluga Queen produced 86 tonnes of caviar last year, most of it destined for exports, with half going to the European Union, 20 percent to the United States and 10 percent to Russia.

Kaluga Queen produced 86 tonnes of caviar last year, most of it destined for 

exports, with half going to the European Union, 20 percent to the United States 

and 10 percent to Russia (AFP Photo/WANG ZHAO)

Depending on the species, the price per kilo varies between 10,000 and 180,000 yuan ($1,420 to $25,600).

Sturgeons producing the most expensive caviar can carry as much as two million yuan worth of eggs.

"It's the price of a Ferrari," said Xia Yongtao, the company's vice president.

'Very good caviar'

Kaluga Queen has walked a "long road" to win the trust of customers since the company produced its first jar in 2006, Xia said.

Chinese caviar had to overcome scepticism from foreign clients who were used to headlines about food scandals, from contaminated milk powder to soy sauce containing arsenic and rice tainted with cadmium.

"A few years ago, customers were reluctant when we talked about Chinese caviar," said Raphael Bouchez, president of Kaviari, a Paris-based supplier to renowned restaurants.

Bouchez convinced customers by explaining how Chinese producers raise fish and use methods that respect the environment.

"Chinese caviar, it must be said, is a very good caviar," Bouchez said.

The bulk of China's caviar production comes from a picturesque lake ringed 

by mountains in eastern Zhejiang province (AFP Photo/WANG ZHAO)

"That said, many of the chefs still do not want it. They prefer to have caviar from France, Uruguay, or elsewhere," he said.

Today, Kaluga Queen has an annual turnover of 220 million yuan and counts among its customers German airline Lufthansa and L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, a two Michelin stars restaurant in Shanghai.

Distributors supply other restaurants around the world, and one buyer said he had delivered one shipment to Kim Jong Un, according to Xia.

French chef Guy Savoy, whose Paris restaurant has three Michelin stars and is rated the best in the world, uses Chinese caviar with skate wings and scallops.

"The label 'made in China' does not matter," Savoy told AFP. "The important thing is the quality of the breeding. Those supplied to us are of remarkable quality."

Lily Liu, Kaluga Queen's marketing manager, hopes someone else can try her company's caviar.

"We hope that Donald Trump will taste our caviar and say: 'I like it! Let's reduce tariffs and help Chinese caviar conquer America!"

Russia releases last belugas from 'whale jail'

Yahoo – AFP, November 10, 2019

Global outcry followed when pictures were published of the whales struggling
 to swim through ice-encrusted waters in cramped enclosures (AFP
Photo/Sergei PETROV)

Moscow (AFP) - The last whales held in a notorious facility dubbed the "whale jail" in Russia's Far East were released on Sunday, the institute overseeing the operation said.

The fate of the whales, which were captured to perform in aquariums, sparked international outrage earlier this year after pictures appeared in the media of them struggling to swim through ice-encrusted waters in cramped enclosures.

Moscow eventually bowed to pressure to release the 93 beluga whales and 11 orcas, which were held for more than a year in the secretive facility in Srednyaya Bay near the far eastern town of Nakhodka.

The whales have since been released in batches, with the last of the orcas freed in August.

The All-Russian Fisheries and Oceanography Institute said the operation to free the last belugas started five days ago.

"In the region of Primorsky Krai, the operation to release the marine mammals into their natural habit has been completed," it said in a statement on Sunday.

Russian NGO Sakhalin Watch, which campaigned for the whales to be freed, said the final 21 belugas were released from two ships on Sunday.

Killer whales are transported to a tank on a truck to be released from the 

"whale jail" earlier this year (AFP Photo/STR)

The organisation said it was delighted that "the release of all the beluga whales has taken place and that the 'whale jail' has finally freed its last prisoners!"

The operation began around 9:00 am (2300 GMT Saturday) and went on until 5:00 pm, Sakhalin Watch said.

Many scientists and activists have criticised the Oceanography Institute for keeping the details of the release secret, not taking any observers on the trip and freeing only a small group of animals at a time rather than all of them together, which would boost their survival odds.

Sakhalin Watch said the coastguard forced its members to leave the bay where the whales were being released.

Russia is the only country that captures wild orcas and belugas to sell to aquariums, a controversial practice made possible by legal loopholes.

Many of the whales held at the facility in Srednyaya Bay were to be sent to aquariums in China.

A Change.org petition for the whales to be released collected more than 1.5 million signatures, including that of Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio.

The animals are being kept at a holding facility in Srednyaya Bay in the Far
Eastern town of Nakhodka (AFP Photo/Sergei PETROV)

Related Articles:

Russia to release killer whales in new habitat, despite expert advice

In Russia, a battle to free nearly 100 captured whales

Russia's world-first floating nuclear plant arrives in port

Yahoo – AFP, September 14, 2019

The Akademik Lomonosov, the world's first floating nuclear power plant, has
completed its odyssey from the Arctic port of Murmansk to the country's far east
-- but environmentalists fear for the consequences (AFP Photo/Handout)

Moscow (AFP) - Russia's world first floating nuclear power station on Saturday completed a 5,000-kilometre (3,100-mile) Arctic transfer to the country's far east, the Rosatom nuclear agency said.

"The Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear plant arrived ... at Pevek, in the autonomous district of Chukotka," where it is to start operating by year end once connected to the local electricity grid, Rosatom said.

What will be the world's northernmost nuclear power plant left Murmansk in Russia's far north on August 23 after being loaded with combustible nuclear fuel.

The 21-ton, 144-metre (470 feet) long and 30-metre wide platform, which is designed to meet the energy needs of remote communities, was towed into Pevek by a clutch of vessels.

The station houses two 35-megawatt reactors, more in line with the power of nuclear-powered ice breakers than typical new generation nuclear plants boasting nearer 1,000 MW capacity.

The Akademik Lomonosov is to provide energy for around 100,000 people and also power oil platforms as Russia develops extraction of natural resources in a mineral-rich area whose eastern tip is a few dozen kilometres from Alaska.

"It is perhaps a small step towards sustainable development in the Arctic -- but it's a giant step towards decarbonisation of remote, off-grid zones and a turning point in the global development of small modular nuclear plants," Rosatom head Alexei Likhachev said in a statement.

Environmental groups led by Greenpeace Russia have, however, long criticised the project warning it will have "serious consequences" for a fragile ecosystem in case of storms or accidents.

Greenpeace has warned of the risk of a "nuclear Titanic" and "Chernobyl on ice" and environmental fears were heightened following an August explosion at a nuclear research facility in Russia's far north which saw local radiation levels briefly spike.

The nuclear industry generally has been looking to reinvent itself in a depressed market, notably by producing small-scale, modular reactors with attractive price tags to win over potential new clients.

The industry has been cheered by strong demand notably for nuclear-powered submarines as well as ice-breakers and aircraft carriers, increasingly destined for isolated and infrastructure-poor regions.

Netherlands, Russia agree deal on Arctic Sunrise compensation

DutchNews, May 17, 2019 

Photo: Salvatore Barbera via Wikimedia Commons

The Netherlands and Russia have reached a settlement in the Arctic Sunrise case, in which Russian officials boarded a Greenpeace protest ship in international waters and arrested the crew in 2013. 

As part of the deal Greenpeace will get €2.7m from Russia to pay for damage to the ship, additional costs and compensation for the 30-strong crew. 

The Arctic Sunrise, which sailed under the Dutch flag, was seized in September 2013 and its crew arrested on piracy charges following a protest at a Russian drilling rig in Arctic waters. The crew were released in December that year after Russia agreed to an amnesty. The ship was kept in Russia for 11 months. 

The Netherlands and Russia have reached a settlement in the @Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise case. Both countries acknowledge the right to protest at sea. This underlines that ships in international waters cannot be boarded and persons on board cannot be arrested without cause. pic.twitter.com/7sE9z8jha4

— Stef Blok (@ministerBlok) 17 mei 2019

In 2015, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ordered Russia to pay the Netherlands compensation over the incident but Russia said at the time it would not recognise the ruling. 

Greenpeace Nederland said in a reaction to the ruling that they welcome the Dutch government’s persistence. 

‘The right to peaceful protest is part of democracy,’ said Faiza Oulahsen, who was on the ship when it was taken over. ‘Although Greenpeace is not part of the deal, we are pleased the Russian authorities are now underwriting the essence of the tribunal ruling.’

Russia to release killer whales in new habitat, despite expert advice

Yahoo – AFP, Maria ANTONOVA, May 15, 2019

The animals are being kept at a holding facility in Srednyaya Bay in the Far
Eastern town of Nakhodka (AFP Photo/Sergei PETROV)

Moscow (AFP) - Russia is to free captured killer whales over the next month, but will not return them to their original habitat despite expert advice, a scientist said Wednesday.

The animals will instead be released from their pens in Russia's Far East and may "disrupt vacationers" at resorts nearby, said Vladislav Rozhnov, who was involved in talks over their fate.

Nearly 100 belugas and orcas were captured last summer and kept in small pens by commercial firms who had planned to deliver them to aquariums, including in China where the industry is booming.

Ten killer whales, or orcas, will be released "in late May to early June", Rozhnov said during a briefing at the Russian environment ministry.

He said it would be more ideal to transport them to where they had initially been captured, as Russian and foreign scientists have advised, but this was deemed too costly.

Instead they will be freed in the bay where they have been held near the town of Nakhodka -- more than 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) south from where they were actually caught in the Sea of Okhotsk.

There is a risk that the whales will "stay near the pens where they were fed" and bother humans, he said.

"Science gives recommendations, but the decision is taken by government authorities," said Rozhnov, who heads the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Environment and -- with other agencies -- is part of a council on the fate of the whales.

Last month Greenpeace activists produced an image of an orca in Moscow in 

protest against keeping orcas and beluga whales crammed into small enclosures 

in the Far Eastern town of Nakhodka (AFP Photo/Yuri KADOBNOV)

"We hope that the released animals will go north and return to their native waters," he said.

'Aggressive' orcas

The environment ministry said in a statement that transporting the animals to the Sea of Okhotsk could injure the animals and cause stress. Constructing rehabilitation enclosures at a faraway release site would be too complicated, it added.

"Due to constraints of time, the realisation of this is difficult," the ministry said.

Russian officials last month met with US-based conservationists Jean-Michel Cousteau and Charles Vinick, who visited the facility with the killer whales and 87 beluga whales, also captured last year.

Rozhnov said there was no precise decision on the beluga whales, but that scientists now were looking into genetic evidence of family ties between the captured juveniles and known beluga groups in the wild.

In a statement Wednesday, Cousteau's team warned that releasing the killer whales near the facility where they were being held carried a "high number of significant risks". They included potential conflict with people and boats in the area due to "aggressive behaviours observed in some of the orcas".

Such a release "leads to likely long-term costs and diminished potential for survival", the team said. They said the whales should be taken to where they were captured following an "acclimatisation period" in remote enclosures.

Russia is the only country still catching wild orcas and belugas. The controversial trade of marine mammals has boomed in recent years together with the aquarium industry in China, which uses Russian animals in its new marine parks.

Although some fisheries officials have defended the capture as a legitimate industry, scientists argue it threatens the species' populations.

'Russian' whale leads to espionage speculations in Norway

Yahoo – AFP, Pierre-Henry DESHAYES, May 3, 2019

The origin of the whale remains unknown more than a week after it was first spotted
(AFP Photo/Jorgen REE WIIG)

Oslo (AFP) - A spy, a far away visitor or a fugitive on the run? A mysterious Beluga whale, caught wearing a suspicious harness, has ignited the imaginations of Norwegians who have yet to receive answers.

The whale has been delighting locals in the area of Finnmark in the far north of Norway for the last week.

But more than a week after it was first spotted by fishermen in the Arctic waters off the coast of northern Norway its origin remains unknown.

When Jorgen Ree Wiig, a marine biologist working with the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries tracked down the mammal with the help of a fisherman and two colleagues on April 26, they managed to remove an obviously man-made harness attached to it.

The harness had a mount suited for an action camera and the text "Equipment St. Petersburg" printed on the plastic clasps.

Wiig told AFP on Friday he believed the whale could have come from neighbouring Russia, where he believed it might have escaped an enclosure.

"The whale is so calm around humans and goes up to boats so it seems to have been accustomed to humans," Wiig said.

Hidden agenda?

Another theory supported by Wiig was that the whale could have been trained by the Russian navy as "they have been known to do so before."

Its ease with humans, the markings on the harness together with reports of the Russian Navy training Beluga whales has led many Norwegians to speculate that it could be a "Russian spy."

Moscow has not issued any official reaction but an officer quoted by the media has mocked the idea, arguing that the military would not be stupid enough to "leave their phone number" on an animal trained for clandestine activities.

The Barents Sea is a strategic geopolitical area where Western and Russian submarine movements are monitored.

It is also the gateway to the Northern Route that shortens maritime routes between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Dmitry Glazov, a scientist working at the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Russian news agency Interfax that the Russian Navy had programmes involving whales and that they were in part operating out of Murmansk.

"It is a fact that the military has these animals. Among other things, they used them during the Sochi Olympics," Glazov said Monday.

There are also private travel agents around Murmansk advertising tours that involve meeting or diving with Belugas kept in enclosures in the White Sea south of the Kola peninsula.

AFP has reached out to two of these agents but has been unable to get a response, as it was a public holiday in the country.

The harness itself has been transferred to the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST), but Martin Bernsen, communications officer at PST, said it was unclear whether they would find anything.

"We must admit that examining technical equipment attached to whales is not a daily occurrence for PST," he told AFP.

"The whale is not a suspect in our investigation, for now," he added.

Possible Western connection

Another theory on the origin of the whale is that the "Equipment St. Petersburg," since it's written in English, might refer to the St. Petersburg in the US state of Florida, where there are water parks with Beluga whales, such as Seaworld in Orlando.

According to Jorgen Ree Wiig it wouldn't be inconceivable for the whale to have travelled from there.

"They can swim quite far and especially young males have been known to travel very far," Wiig said.

This hypothesis is supported by videos showing local residents throwing plastic rings in the water which the whale brings back.

Its path would then be reminiscent to that of the famous killer whale Keiko, star of the film "Free Willy" (1993), who once released into the wild outside Iceland swam to the coastal waters of Norway.

No water park has however yet reported the disappearance of a Beluga whale.

Wherever it's from, the whale has become quite the celebrity, and a poll to name it was conducted online by Norwegian broadcaster NRK and gathered 25,000 votes.

Thirty percent of the votes went to the name "Hvaldimir", a pun on the word whale in Norwegian and a nod to its alleged association to Russia.

Beluga whales, which can reach a size of 6 metres and live to between 40 and 60 years of age generally habitate the icy waters around Greenland and northern Norway and Russia.

A sociable species related to dolphins, it travels in pods and the observation of an isolated individual is rare.