When a beluga whale started to play with Norwegian fishing boats and interact with tourists in 2019, it became an internet sensation.
The sociable creature seemed drawn to humans, and they were drawn to him. But Hvaldimir’s story seems to be a sad one; wearing a tight harness stamped with “equipment of St Petersburg”. The media went crazy, with talk of a “spy whale”.
Because he seems to be trained by and used to people, he is not functioning well in the wild and is under threat by salmon farmers, conservationists have said, as he spends his time by the nets, eating the fish attracted by the salmon food and annoying fishermen.
But now his fortunes could be set to change. A British entrepreneur was so touched by his story he is now trying to raise funds to create the world’s first open-water whale sanctuary in the Norwegian fjords. Work on the 500-acre reserve, near the town of Hammerfest, is due to start early next year. Former property mogul Adam Thorpe set up the charity OneWhale, which currently funds the monitoring and protection of Hvaldimir and has financed studies which are allowing the sanctuary to be created. He teamed up with film-maker Regina Crosby, who said she had to act after going to film the distressed whale.
“Everybody has fallen in love with this whale from YouTube viral videos,” said Thorpe. “I read about him in the National Geographic in 2019, and found it concerning. He has clearly been domesticated and has a wonderful personality. I thought, well, if we could create a sanctuary or a reserve, which protects the whale from boat traffic, it means that he can fish for himself and live as natural a life as possible.”
OneWhale has the support of the local government in Hammerfest, and has partnered with the community to create the reserve, if OneWhale can raise the funds – £250,000 to get the nets to secure the space, create basic accommodation for staff to stay nearby and monitor the inhabitants, as well as a veterinary laboratory to provide care.
The reserve would be big enough to take a number of whales that have been trained by humans and are used to captivity. The project hopes to enable the whales to hunt for themselves and interact with one another, and finally to be released back into the wild. Thorpe thinks this would be better than some suggestions from zoologists, that whales such as Hvaldimir be kept in a tank in captivity.
“By telling the story of this whale we can also offer a reserve to other formerly captive whales,” he said. “There are no salmon farms on the reserve and there are no boats coming in and out, eliminating the risk of propeller injuries.”
But while the project began as a small operation, with just Thorpe and Crosby trying to protect Hvaldimir, it has grown into a larger non-profit project, with world-leading scientists, vets and conservationists on its board, working to create the sanctuary. It has even attracted the interest of Netflix, which is in talks with Crosby about a film documenting the whale and his journey from captivity, to danger at sea, to a sanctuary.
There is a fear that the whale could be euthanised if he continues to trouble salmon farmers. Norway has a track record of doing this; the government recently came under fire for euthanising Freya the walrus after it drew crowds of tourists near a fjord.
“We have to constantly monitor Hvaldimir and make sure he is not causing a nuisance at the salmon farms where he likes to hang out,” Thorpe explained. “One of his jobs in the past has clearly been to mess about with boats and propellers. And so one of his tricks is to wrap a rope around the propeller. Things like that, while they’re cute, are pretty frustrating to salmon farms. If something were to happen at the salmon farm and he was blamed for it, then he’d be euthanised straight away, they’d have no qualms about that at all.”
• This article was amended on 6 November 2022. It is the local government in Hammerfest that has given permission for the reserve to be created, not the Norwegian government as an earlier version said.
