A similar whale has been seen by onlookers in the Potomac. It keeps asking them for polling data and sanctions relief.
Looks like it was forced to be a suicide bomber but he dumped the bomb and swam away.
I guess the bad thing of them being trained by humans is they get used to and want to be with humans.
Will they build a wall along the coast?
Suicide depth charger?
I heard it’s here to talk about adoptions.
I really wish an experienced marine mammal trainer would go up there and assess the situation–it was clear to me even from the first video that the beluga was expecting to be fed. Sometimes it’s possible to deduce what an animal has been trained for by observing when it seeks reinforcement for behaviors, and then you can work backwards to figure out the whole behavior chain. I’m guessing that returning to the boat was the final link in the chain.
I’ve been emailing back and forth with a dog-trainer friend who started out as a marine mammal trainer–anything with a nervous system gets trained the same way, but the reinforcers are specific to the species, and then to individuals within that species (I have one dog who works for kibble, and another who works for tennis balls, for example), and one question for me is how to get behaviors when the trainer doesn’t have control over self-reinforcement; there’s really nothing to stop a beluga or a dolphin in the open sea from flipping you the fin and saying so long and thanks for all the fish.
So someone has been working with that beluga long enough for him/her to think it’s much easier to swim up to a boat and start offering behaviors than to pick up lunch on the go, and I would like to know who, how, where, and for what.
Somehow I don’t think the Russians will tell the truth if we ask them.
Classic Russian blubberpot!
But it’s so darned cute…
The reporting I read when this story appeared a couple days ago said animal trainers that were asked by reporters all said the whale lifting its head above water and opening its mouth was practically proof it had been trained by humans (never mind the harness it wore), so it stands to reason that it would continue to hang around where humans are to get free meals.
That’s a great insight, though, that this is an opportunity to reverse engineer the training and find out what the Russian programs are aimed at accomplishing. Is it spying, assessments of port or base facilities, or is it placement of listening devices or explosives, destruction of aids to navigation, what? Is it an advance program to support Putin’s claimed long-range nuclear torpedo program?
I hope they round this beast up and do what your friends recommended.
It’s been nicknamed ‘Hvaldimir’ - a pun on Vladimir (Putin) and the Norwegian word for whale - ‘hval’.
Why are we all assuming it’s Russian in origin? Seems to me the CIA or MI6 could just as easily have trained it, using the St. Petersburg label as a means of throwing the world off the trail.
Hey, I’m as paranoid about the resurgent, meddling Russians as anyone, but the known facts seem to fit almost any of the 5 or 6 top intelligence agencies in the world.
**This story… **
Everyone in this thread is cracking jokes about the whale, but I find the whole thing very sad. Belugas are social animals that travel in pods of ~10. This whale has no pod; no friends, no family. He is overly dependent on humans, perhaps even hungry. He is not suitable for the wild and at risk of death by boat strike, starvation, or something else. He likely spent a long time in captivity in tank that severely restricted his movement. Perhaps he was trained with punishment which is common for training that is not an extension of natural behaviors. See e.g., the use of bullhooks on circus elephants.
Whatever happened to him has ruined his one life in this universe.
You makin’ me wail.
I take your point about this situation calling for experts. But, I think you’re over-thinking things. All we need is a Literature major to figure out what the command phrases are. I’d start here:
To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell’s heart, I stab at thee; For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee.
Location. If I were MI6 and training northern species to work in northern waters, I’d use the Hebrides. If I were the CIA, probably Alaska, as far away from Russian fishing and naval vessels as I could get.
Why risk this exact scenario of a lost whale approaching a another country’s boat?
@logicalconsideration
I tried to respond on my phone, and my fat-fingered typing turned it into a self-reply. Duh.