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You might remember hearing about the mysterious beluga whale that appeared off the coast of Norway wearing a harness.

It was back in 2019 when this tame white whale made headlines after a group of scientists and fishermen spotted the whale swimming near their boat and realised it was wearing a harness.

Speculation then spread that it was a Russian spy.

Now, an expert in the species thinks she knows the answers to where this whale came from.

Expert Dr Olga Shpak believes that the whale did belong to the military and escaped from its naval base in the Arctic Circle.

But she doesn't think its job was as a spy.

She thinks the whale was being trained to guard the base.

However, Russia has always refused to confirm or deny whether the beluga whale was trained by its military.

Who is Dr Olga Shpak?

Dr Shpak worked in Russia researching marine mammals from the 1990s before returning to her native country, Ukraine, in 2022.

She has now spoken out about the mysterious whale.

Whilst she didn't want to name any of her sources in Russia for their own safety, she said she had been told that when the whale appeared in Norway, the Russian marine mammal community identified it as one of theirs.

“Through the chain of vets and trainers the message came back – that they were missing a beluga called Andruha,” she says.

Where does Dr Shpak believe the whale came from?

According to Dr Shpak, the whale was first captured in 2013 before being moved to a dolphinarium in St Petersburg, Russia, as part of the military program.

There, trainers and vets worked with the animal to train him up.

She said: "What I've heard from the guys at the commercial dolphinarium who used to have him was that Andruha was smart, so a good choice to be trained."

The whale was also known to be a "hooligan", and she believes trainers were not surprised when he gave up and went where he wanted to go.

Can whales really be trained to work for the military?

Beluga whales, dolphins and orcas are very intelligent animals, and they can potentially be trained in the same way you might train a dog.

During the Cold War, the US military had a training programme for dolphins and sea lions.

Since 1959, the U.S. Navy has trained these marine animals as teammates for sailors and Marines to help guard them from underwater threats.

Marine animals can be trained for various things, including to rescue lost naval swimmers, guard navy ships against enemy divers, locate mines and help with location or recovery of equipment lost on the seabed.