They found a whale in Norway, they think she escaped from a Russian military base

A beluga discovered with a narrow harness alerted the Norwegian authorities and suggested that the animal might have escaped from a Russian military facility, authorities said Monday.

Joergen Ree Wiig, of the Norwegian Fishing Directive, said that "the St. Petersburg team" was written on a leash, which also included camera support.

Ree Wiig added that Norwegian Arctic fishermen reported last week that the white and silent cetacean was swimming with a tight harness in the area. On Friday, the fisherman Joar Hesten, with the help of Ree Wiig, jumped into the icy water to remove the harness.

"Members of the Norwegian Army have shown great interest in the harness," said Ree Wiig.

Audun Rikardsen, a professor in the Department of Marine and Arctic Biology at the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsoe, in the north of the country, believes that "it is highly likely that the Russian Navy in Murmansk" is involved. Russia has important military installations in and around Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula in the far north-west of Russia.

Rikardsen added that he had reviewed with Russian and Norwegian academics and that they had not reported any program of experiments using beluga whales.

"He is a domestic animal who is used to being served food, so he made contact with the fishermen," he said. "The question now is whether you can survive by finding your own food, we have seen cases where other whales in Russian captivity are doing well."

Hesten told Norwegian transmitter NRK that the whale had started rubbing against his boat when he saw it for the first time.