Usually he lives in arctic waters. But last week a beluga whale surfaced in the Seine. Despite his poor health, a spectacular rescue operation has begun.
The stray beluga whale while still swimming in the Seine.
It was first sighted by sailors a week ago. However, it took a few more days before the authorities were able to clearly identify the beluga whale in the Seine. On Friday, the four-meter-long and completely white animal was spotted in a lock basin near Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne, around 70 kilometers north of Paris and around 130 kilometers from the sea.
With the crane in the refrigerated truck
Since then, his fate has moved the media and animal rights activists, mainly because he is apparently not doing very well. The animal looks emaciated, said representatives of the environmental organization Sea Shepard France. Since then, attempts have been made to encourage it to eat by giving it vitamins. If it looked as if the animal was dying at the weekend, its condition had apparently stabilized at the beginning of the week.
Around 80 rescue workers managed to lift the whale out of the lock basin on Tuesday night.
The warm river water is not a favorable habitat for the whale. Although beluga whales can survive in fresh water, they are used to other temperatures: they live primarily in arctic and subarctic waters, and in winter they sometimes migrate to the estuaries of Quebec. He should return there as soon as possible.
During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, around 80 helpers were able to catch the 800-kilogram animal with a net. A crane then lifted it out of the water and onto a stretcher. The action lasted almost the whole night and, according to the sub-prefect on site, was extremely delicate. The whale was startled when it was lifted out of the water and started moving in the net, said the sub-prefect of the Eure department the channel France Info. Veterinarians would have attested him a poor chance of survival. According to the Sea Shepard organization, his digestive system has stopped working.
The male whale is currently in a refrigerated truck en route to a saltwater pool in Ouistreham. He will be observed there for three days. If his condition permits, he should then be transported to the high seas and released.
The appearance of the whale in the Seine, which usually moves in groups, is extraordinary – and there has also been speculation about the reasons for days. The President of the environmental organization Sea Shepard France cites noise pollution below the sea surface – for example from the construction of wind farms – as the cause; she led the whale away from its peers. A representative of the French whale researchers is more reserved and reminds that the last case of a stray whale probably also had health reasons. That Pelagis marine mammal and bird observatory points out that there are always stray animals, which may be due to several factors – age, state of health, environmental factors or social isolation. But they could also remain inexplicable.
Numerous onlookers follow the rescue operation.
A whale had already strayed into the Seine in May. However, the young female orca spotted between Rouen and Le Havre died a few days later. An autopsy showed the animal starved to death. According to the forensic analysis, the whale had not eaten for several weeks. In addition, a bullet was found in the animal’s skull, which was probably not the reason for the death. A beluga whale has only been sighted once in France, when it was caught by a fisherman in the Loire Estuary in 1948.