Thus, the investigation into the illegal killing has also been dropped, according to Norwegian police.
A possible cause of the infection is believed to be a wound in the whale's mouth, which occurred after a stick got stuck there.
The stick may also have caused Hvaldimir to have problems absorbing nutrients, which increased the risk of infection. During the autopsy, nothing was found to suggest that the whale was shot, says Amund Preede Revheim, head of the Norwegian police district Sør-Vest, which led the investigation, to NTB.
Since the whale was found dead in Stavanger on August 31, there has been much speculation about the cause. Two animal rights organizations have, among other things, claimed that Hvaldimir was shot to death, something the police quickly denied.
The beluga whale was first discovered at the end of April 2019 and gained attention because it was very sociable. It was also equipped with a camera harness marked "Equipment from St. Petersburg" – which led to speculation that it was trained to perform Russian espionage tasks.
