feed specialists
“a little bit of hope”
for the Beluga,” said Lamya Essemli, Director of Sea Shepherd France. “We all have doubts about his ability to return to sea”, “even if we piloted him with a boat, “it would be extremely dangerous, if not impossible”. However, “the option of euthanasia is ruled out for the time being because it would be premature at this point,” he noted.
The beluga still has “energy… it turns its head, it responds to stimuli,” he explained. But although rescuers tried to feed her frozen herring and then live trout, she refused the feed. “His lack of appetite is definitely a symptom of something else, one thing
illness
. He’s malnourished, and that was weeks if not months ago. He stopped eating in the sea,” Essemlali said. Another option being considered is to take the beluga out of the water, give it vitamins, investigate the cause of the disease and send it back to the sea to be fed.