Back in spring of 2019, a beluga whale wearing a camera harness appeared in a small fishing harbor in northern Norway. Local fishermen removed the harness and were surprised that the whale was friendly and seemed to be used to humans.

Playing with Madrone’s dinghy painter and float
He liked to lift the painter up on top of his head and push the dinghy around

Since the camera harness referenced St. Petersburg in Russia, speculation grew that the beluga either escaped or was released from a Russian military training center for whales. With this information in mind, the whale was named Hvaldimir – a conjunction of hval (whale in Norwegian) and Vladimir, Russia’s overlord. For the past several years Hvaldimir has roamed the Norwegian and north Swedish coasts, interacting with people on boats and docks, and spending plenty of time roaming around fish farms, likely to scoop up and eat fellow escapees.

Hvaldimir checking out Angie while she’s checking him out
Heading under Madrone to blow some bubbles

All of this was unknown to Madrone’s crew, who were awakened by strange noises from a peaceful sleep in a quiet anchorage just north of Smogen, Sweden – bubbles being blown against the bottom of the boat, the dinghy being pushed into the transom, and the anchor chain being moved back and forth across the seabed. Angie went on deck to investigate and was surprised to find Hvaldimir entertaining himself with Madrone.

Heading off to do a lap around the bay at Hasselösund
After circling around the bay for a bit he came back to Madrone for some more fun with the dinghy

It’s hard to know who was more excited – Angie to have a whale visiting the boat, or Hvaldimir to have Angie watching him…