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Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts

theguardian.com

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Re: Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts

#4

Post by shaki-dora »

This is the sort of totally obvious prisoner’s dilemma that just a tiny bit of international cooperation could easily avoid, if only Russia (and now the US) had not gone down the road of pseudo-macho brutalism in politics.

With the beluga cat now out of the bag, any maritime conflict will be liable to justify the wholesale slaughter of large marine mammals, just as 60 years of preservation efforts have been showing some good results, and incidentally proving that international cooperation actually can work.

On the plus side, nothing was gained. Whales as a weapons, or reconnaissance, platform may have worked as a tactical surprise. But it is useless once it’s known. Killing all the whales in the Atlantic is a day’s worth of fun for bored sailors.

Instead, everyone could have just played солитер all day in the safe knowledge that they are doing the best work of their life.

Re: Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts

#7

Post by StavrosK »

grandinj wrote: post #6

Or it could be a loose piece of harness floating around the sea that the whale got trapped in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_(medicine)

Then it got trapped in it pretty damn neatly, with one part behind the fun and one on its "neck". It's like my dog getting randomly tangled in its chest harness with the legs in the right position.

Re: Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts

#8

Post by aaron695 »

grandinj wrote: post #6

Or it could be a loose piece of harness floating around the sea that the whale got trapped in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_(medicine)

More pics here

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/27716/did-this-beluga-...

I agree they are making stuff up (it doesn't say "Equipment of St. Petersburg" for instance as you can clearly see from the pic)

But it's something.

Re: Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts

#9

Post by lm28469 »

Have you seen the harness ? [0]

You might be able to strap a gps or a camera on it, but a weapon ?! What's up with all the articles "russia/china bad" popping up recently ?

> In 1980s Soviet Russia, a programme saw dolphins recruited for military training

Yeah, just like any nation with enough defence budget. Dolphins/sea lions [1], dogs, rats [2], &c. are used all the time.

[0] https://www.sciencealert.com/mysterious-whale-wearing-strang...

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/5-animals-that-serve-in-the-...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APOPO

Re: Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts

#10

Post by _iyig »

lm28469 wrote: post #9

Have you seen the harness ? [0] You might be able to strap a gps or a camera on it, but a weapon ?! What's up with all the articles "russia/china bad" popping up recently ? > In 1980s Soviet Russia, a programme saw dolphins recruited for military training Yeah, just like any nation with enough defence budget. Dolphins/sea lions [1], dogs, rats [2], &c. are used all the time. [0] https://www.sciencealert.com/mysteriou…

Well, Russia recently invaded a European country, assassinated several people in the U.K., got caught using spies to infiltrate U.S. political parties, hacked the emails of a U.S. presidential candidate while meeting secretly with her opponent (who may or may not be massively in the Russian government’s debt), and resumed air attack drills on NATO countries. So, a lot of English-speaking people see Russia as the “bad guy” right now.
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