The harness, which is a camera mount, is apparently Russian-made, with the words "Equipment St. Petersburg" written on it, so some are surmising that the whale got out of a Russian military facility, Fox News reported.
Fishermen jumped in the water and removed the harness from the whale, The Associated Press reported.
The tamed whale had come up to the men’s boat when they noticed the band on the marine mammal.
Credit: Joergen Ree Wiig/Norwegian Direcorate of Fisheries Sea Surveillance Unit via AP
Credit: Joergen Ree Wiig/Norwegian Direcorate of Fisheries Sea Surveillance Unit via AP
"This is a tame animal that is used to get food served so that is why it has made contacts with the fishermen," Audun Rikardson, a professor at the Department of Arctic and Marine Biology at the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsoe, told the AP.
Russia has not been known to use whales in the military, but during the Soviet era they trained dolphins, the AP reported.
Officials also put the word out in 2016 that they were searching to buy three male and two female bottlenose dolphins, the Washington Post reported.
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