“Fortunately, she ran aground on a beach accessible for equipment!” On the night from Saturday to Sunday, a ten-tonne and ten-meter-long humpback whale stranded dead on the beach of Embruns in Bidart (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), reports France Bleu .
The services managed to evacuate within 2:30 hours: they first cut it up with a mechanical shovel before storing it with a specialist. Analysis needs to be done to find out if she was ill or if she was hit by a boat offshore.
“Let nature take its toll”
Emmanuel Alzuri, the city’s mayor, regrets that whales are stranded in the square when they have previously been seen offshore. “It would be better to salvage them at sea, bring them into the sea and let nature take its effect on you,” he explains. Because when you run aground on an inaccessible beach, it’s harder to cut them up with a knife.
“They should be left to rot on the shore. But when you see the horrible smells of these decomposing animals and the amount of flies or hornets they attract… avoid it!”
Last January, a whale stranded in the Vieille-Saint-Girons region in the Landes. Sud Ouest recalls that in May, nine dolphins were stranded in three days on the Landes and Basque coasts between Capbreton and Guéthary.
Original article published on BFMTV.com
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