Sola, Norway - The mystery of a whale found off the coast of Norway and suspected of espionage for Russia has finally been solved.

Hvaldimir the beluga was discovered wearing a harness labeled "Equipment St. Petersburg," triggered concerns that it may have been a Russian spy.

Despite suspicions, he became a beloved member of Norway's maritime community, before passing away earlier this year. Now, the mystery of the past seems to have been solved.

Dr. Olga Shpak, who worked in Russia researching marine mammals in the 1990s, told BBC News that while Russia is definitely part of the story, she doesn't believe that the beluga was a spy.

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Reaching out to contacts in Russia, she heard back that Moscow's military was "missing a beluga called Andruha."

"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," Shpak added.

Hvaldimir may have escaped Russian military training and fled across into Norwegian waters.

Belugas and other dolphins can be trained similarly to dogs, due to their incredible intelligence. They have been used by the Russian, and even the US military for many years.

"He was kind of like a hooligan – an active beluga," Shpak said of the late Hvaldimir. "So they were not surprised that he gave up [on training] and went where he wanted to."