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As well as warmer seas, some storms also disrupted ice around the Barents and Bering Seas, with the consequences likely amplified by long-term reductions in sea-ice thickness.

“The location of the beluga whales very close to the submarines and the surface vessels might tell us that they are actually part of a guarding system,” says Thomas Nilsen, from Norwegian online newspaper The Barents Observer.

Russia has a history of training marine mammals such as dolphins for military purposes, and the Barents Observer website has identified whale pens near naval bases in the north-west area of Murmansk.

One Whale had called for him to be transferred to the Barents Sea in northern Norway - a more natural habitat for belugas - which would reduce the risk of ship collisions.

Russia has a history of training marine mammals such as dolphins for military purposes and the Barents Observer website has identified whale pens near naval bases in the north-west area of Murmansk.