The Royal Navy made a whale of a blunder after sensors monitoring waters near north-west Scotland mistakenly identified flatulent whale sounds as suspected Russian drone activity, The Sun reported.

The peculiar noises, detected between the Isle of Ramsay and Applecross, initially raised fears that a Russian submersible drone had installed a listening device to spy on the UK’s nuclear submarines. These concerns prompted heightened scrutiny of the area, with analysts describing the signals as “man-made sounds which had never been recorded on the range in its 55-year history.” Speculation grew that Russia’s GUGI unit might be collecting acoustic data to track UK submarines.

However, further analysis determined that the sounds were produced by a whale.

“We have been analysing the sounds and now believe it was a marine mammal – a whale,” an unnamed naval official told the British tabloid. Despite this conclusion, caution remains high. “We are taking it very seriously. We have to assume the worst,” another source added.

This incident occurs against a backdrop of rising concerns about threats to British undersea infrastructure. The UK has recently accused Moscow of damaging undersea cables in the Baltic Sea. On January 22, Defence Secretary John Healey informed Parliament that the Royal Navy had tracked the Russian ship Yantar passing through UK waters. London claims the vessel is “used for gathering intelligence and mapping the UK’s critical underwater infrastructure.” Healey warned that Russian vessels tampering with British undersea cables could face swift action, including being boarded and seized by Royal Marines.

Earlier in January, the Royal Navy announced that in late December the frigate HMS Somerset had monitored a Russian naval group as it travelled from the North Sea to the English Channel. The group remained in international waters during the operation.