Q 01/05

In 1985 a Soviet icebreaker led some 2,000 trapped belugas to open sea by playing what on its loudspeakers?

A) Classical music

B) Recorded whale calls

C) Military marches

D) Folk songs

Answer · why

A) Classical music

Classical music did it: the whales had refused to follow the icebreaker Moskva until the crew tried it. Local people had kept them alive until then by...

Q 02/05

NOC, a beluga kept by the US Navy, once made a diver surface in confusion by doing what?

A) Tugging his air hose

B) Stealing his diving mask

C) Mimicking human speech

D) Sounding a tank alarm

Answer · why

C) Mimicking human speech

Mimicking human speech was NOC's trick: the diver thought a colleague had ordered him out of the water. To do it the whale dropped his voice several o...

Q 03/05

A tame beluga that appeared off Norway in 2019 wearing a camera harness was widely suspected of being what?

A) An escaped film animal

B) A runaway aquarium star

C) A trained spy

D) A lost research subject

Answer · why

C) A trained spy

A trained spy was the popular theory, since the harness was marked Equipment St Petersburg. Norwegians named him Hvaldimir, joining hval, their word f...

Q 04/05

Beluga caviar, among the world's costliest foods, comes not from the whale but from which fish?

A) Swordfish

B) Sturgeon

C) Bluefin tuna

D) Halibut

Answer · why

B) Sturgeon

Sturgeon is the source: the critically endangered beluga sturgeon. Fish and whale are unrelated, and both take their name from the Russian word for wh...

Q 05/05

Which nickname did sailors give the beluga because of its constant chirps, squeals and whistles?

A) Sea canary

B) Sea parrot

C) Ocean lark

D) Ice nightingale

Answer · why

A) Sea canary

Sea canary is the name sailors gave the beluga long ago. Its repertoire also runs to clicks, clucks and even moos.