If the cetacean could not be saved, the funds will have made it possible to finance a rescue never carried out in France. “Lessons can be learned for the future,” says naturalist Gérard Mauger.
“ From both a logistical and financial point of view, there has been great generosity“says Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd France. A few days earlier, she launched, with the association, a kitty to finance the rescue operation of the beluga spotted in the Seine on August 4 and euthanized late yesterday morning.
And for good reason, this type of operation has a significant cost. “ For this rescue, it was necessary to count 28,000 euros to rent the barge allowing to carry out the operation and 10,000 euros for the transport“, notes the president. “ However, the prefecture told us that the State could not bear this cost.“, she adds. In order to be able to sign the rental quote for said barge and act as quickly as possible, Sea Shepherd therefore decided to launch, on August 9, a kitty of 30,000 euros on helloasso.com. The objective is quickly achieved: We got the amount during the day and signed the quote right away.“, she relates.
“France must be better prepared for this type of situation”
Moreover, it welcomes the material and human aid provided without delay by the public authorities. In particular by the town hall of Val-de-Reuil which has made accommodation available to the association, but also the prefecture of Eure “ which mobilized around sixty people for the operation such as firefighters, gendarmes and lock keepers“, she lists. Similarly, companies have lent many tools: “ The crane, first, but also walkie-talkies, towels or mattresses, so many things that are difficult to gather in an emergency“.
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Although the operation unfortunately did not save the beluga, Lamya Essemlali points to France’s lack of preparation: ” We have 3000 kilometers of coastline but no adequate structure “, she argues. The operation could have been very expensive for the State: If we had an existing structure, we wouldn’t have had to tear our hair out to find out where the beluga would go. The planned lock was only available for three days. If the beluga had to stay longer, the shortfall would have been at least 100,000 euros per day for the State“, she insists. According to the president of Sea Sheperd, it would be necessary to identify on the French coastline places where the topography would be suitable for installing removable structures: “ They consist of a huge net, deployed to determine an area, a kind of basin where the animal is placed“, she explains. Said structures cost between 100,000 and 300,000 euros.
An operation never performed in France
For his part, Gérard Mauger, vice-president of the Cotentin cetacean group, believes that the financing of such structures is not the priority. He recalls the context in which the rescue decision was taken: “After the orca which could not be saved last June, it is true that there was some media pressure and this weighed on the decision-makers“, he explains, before adding: “the choice was finally made by the services of the State and the prefecture of the 27 to try everything to save this individual lost in the Seine, even if the chances were rather minimal“. For him, future investments rather reside elsewhere: “ It is necessary to be more reactive on the evaluation of the level of health of the animal and to put the means on the veterinary expertise in order to set the ethical limits on the need for an intervention or not.“. However, he considers that the money raised “is not lost» and made it possible to finance an operation «which had never been made in France“. “We have already learned a lot in terms of the organization and coordination of all the services mobilized, for that I take my hat off to them“, he concludes.
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