by Samuel Finetti
During the night, the experts had lifted him out of the river with a crane. Showing no signs of infection, he was ready to be transported in a saltwater tank, but his health was now at risk.
A net that was enough to get him out of the water. Raised not by human arms, but by a crane: because the animal in question was not one of the numerous pike that populate the waters of the Seine, but the beluga, which for five days had swum along the great French river through a lock of about 125 meters at 25, seventy kilometers northwest of Paris. However, the illusion of having saved him did not last long: only a few hours passed, the whale was killed due to its condition.
The specimen was rescued last night in an operation coordinated by firefighters, veterinarians and experts from Sea Shepherd France. He then explained on Twitter that it was a male specimen, four meters long and weighing around 800 kilograms (well below the standard for the species), which immediately underwent some veterinary examinations. At first there were no signs of a contagious disease, but biologists could not clarify why he never ate the fish thrown next to him, after the first observations showed that he was losing weight.
Le bluga and sorti de l’Eau aprs de longues heures de preparation et d’Efforts. Bravo aux quipes impliques d?Avoir relev ce dfi.Les premier examens mdicaux ont faits, les rsultats seront bientt connus. Le bluga va maintenant take the route to Ouistreham. pic.twitter.com/Vc8aBMKf6r
– Sea Shepherd France (@SeaShepherdFran) August 10, 2022
After the rescue, the beluga was to be transported north to a saltwater tank in the Norman town of Ouistreham aboard a refrigerated truck already prepared for the delicate transport. But in the end, the long exposure to freshwater and pollution from the Seine was fatal. On Sunday, Sea Shepard France President Lamya Essemlili admitted there was little hope of rescuing him except within 24 to 48 hours.
In May, an orca died in the Seine because it was malnourished. Now experts can only wonder how a beluga could be found in the French hinterland, 3,000 kilometers from its nearest habitat (the Svalbard Mountains in Norway). The French Pelagis Observatory, which specializes in cetaceans, pointed out that this is the fourth case of a specimen of this species sighted in Europe at these latitudes: in 1948, a beluga had landed in a fisherman’s nets along the Loire; In 1966 another had surfaced in the German Rhine; and finally, in 2018, a specimen had surfaced at the Thames Estuary.
August 10, 2022 (change August 10, 2022 | 11:55)
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