Stranded beluga whale removed from Seine river in France as part of rescue attempt | France

The beluga stranded in the Seine River in northern France was reportedly rescued early Wednesday in the first phase of an ambitious rescue operation.

After nearly six hours of work, the 800-kilogram whale was lifted from the river by net and crane around 4am (0200 GMT) and placed on a barge under the immediate care of a dozen veterinarians.

The beluga, a protected species normally found in cold arctic waters, will next be loaded onto a refrigerated truck and transported to the coast, Isabelle Dorliat-Pouzet, secretary-general of Eure prefecture, said ahead of the rescue operation.

Vets tend to a beluga whale stranded in the Seine River near Notre Dame de la Garenne, northern France. Photo: Jean-François Monier/AFP/Getty Images

The four-metre whale was sighted more than a week ago en route to Paris and beached 130 km (80 miles) inland of the English Channel at Saint-Pierre-La-Garenne in Normandy.

Since Friday, the animal’s movement inland has been blocked by a lock at Saint-Pierre-La-Garenne, 70km north-west of Paris, and its health had deteriorated after it refused to eat.

But her condition is “satisfactory,” Isabelle Brasseur of Marineland marine animal park in southern France, the largest in Europe, told AFP on Tuesday.

A seawater pool at a lock in Ouistreham’s canal harbor has been prepared for the animal, which will spend three days there under surveillance in preparation for release.

Onlookers and locals watch as a team of rescuers remove a lost beluga whale trapped in the Seine. Photo: Christophe Petit-Tesson/EPA

The “extraordinary” operation to get him back to sea was not without risk for the whale, which is already weakened and stressed, said Brasseur, part of a Marineland team dispatched alongside NGO Sea Shepherd France to help with the to help rescue.

“It could be that he dies now, in handling, while driving or at point B,” she said in Ouistreham.

The 24 divers involved in the operation and the rescuers handling the ropes had to try several times between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. to lure the animal into the nets to lift it out of the water.

A handful of curious people stayed on the shore all night to watch the operation.