Hammerfest: Meet Hvaldimir!

After the museum, we hurried over to one of the piers in the harbor to meet Hvaldimir, who the volunteer at the visitor center said would likely show up for his noon meal and training to hunt for his own food.

Hvaldimir is a male beluga whale that is a fairly new “part-time resident” of Hammerfest. He apparently showed up nearby a little earlier this year. He was wearing a camera harness that supposedly had a reference to St Petersburg, Russia. His behavior indicated that he was used to human interaction. Even though the harness was removed, he remained in the area, making frequent visits to the harbor.

The story goes that he was a “Russian spy whale.” Thus, he was named “Hvaldimir” ... a play on words consisting of hval = whale in Norwegian; and dimir = Vla”dimir” Putin 😉.

(I later read that he left the area sometime later in July, showing up in Hammerfest infrequently after that. More info at this link if interested ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hvaldimir).Read more