The rescue operation of a beluga whale in northern France failed. Vets had to euthanize the whale released from the Seine on Wednesday after transporting it to the English Channel. The weakened marine mammal was examined by a veterinarian immediately upon its arrival in the port city of Ouistreham, the Calvados department’s prefecture said. Unfortunately, his condition was found to have deteriorated significantly during transport.
“Despite the unprecedented effort to save the beluga whale, we regret to announce that the whale has died,” the city said on Twitter. The animal’s breathing noticeably deteriorated during transport to a seawater basin in Normandy, the city of Caen also said. That’s why the whale was euthanized, said official veterinarian Ollivet Courtois.
The beluga whale was first spotted on the Seine on Tuesday of last week and has been trapped in a lock in Saint-Pierre-La-Garenne since Friday, about 70 kilometers from Paris – 130 kilometers from the Seine estuary. , in the English Channel. According to experts, the animal could not have survived long in the warm, fresh water. Beluga whales typically live in arctic waters off the coasts of Russia, Alaska and Canada.
The elaborate rescue operation was not successful
In a complex rescue operation that lasted several hours, emergency services freed the weakened whale from the Seine overnight. The marine mammal, four meters long and weighing around 800 kilograms, was hauled out of the lock with a net and crane and, after an initial veterinary examination, loaded onto a barge in a refrigerated truck.
The truck was supposed to take the whale to Ouistreham in the English Channel, about 100 miles away. In the harbor there, a basin of sea water had been prepared for him, where he was to be suckled. Then he was to be taken back to the open sea. However, French authorities did not rule out from the outset that the whale would not survive transport. (apa)