How France rescued the beluga whale trapped in Seine river

After nearly six hours of work, the stranded beluga whale was lifted from France's Seine river by a net and crane and placed on a barge under the immediate care of a dozen veterinarians.

The beluga whale stranded in the river Seine in northern France was removed from the water early Wednesday in the first stage of a rescue operation.

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

French marine experts had launched an ambitious operation to rescue an ailing beluga whale that swam up the Seine river, to return it to the sea.

A group of 24 police and fire service divers held a final briefing before moving to the river to begin efforts to lift it out of the water and onto a truck for transportation.

The 13-foot whale, a protected species usually found in cold Arctic waters, was spotted a week ago heading towards Paris, and is now some 130 kilometres inland.

Divers and animal specialists including veterinarians worked to get the beluga into a sort of hammock to suspend it above the water and bring it to a vehicle that will then transport it to the sea.

As preparations for the operation got underway, people gathered along the banks of the river to observe their progress.

The animal's movement inland has been blocked by a lock at Saint-Pierre-La-Garenne in Normandy, and its health has deteriorated after it refused to eat.

The team is tasked to get the whale into a refrigerated truck. Interest in the beluga's fate has spread far beyond France, generating a large influx of financial donations and other aid from conservation groups as well as individuals.

Sea Shepherd issued an appeal in particular for heavy-duty ropes, nets, mattresses and other equipment. 

Belugas are normally found only in cold Arctic waters, and while they migrate south in the autumn to feed as ice forms, they rarely venture so far.

 

According to France's Pelagis Observatory, specialised in sea mammals, the nearest beluga population is off the Svalbard archipelago, north of Norway, 3,000 kilometres from the Seine.

The trapped whale is only the second beluga ever sighted in France. The first was pulled out of the Loire estuary in a fisherman's net in 1948.

The last-ditch bid to save the animal is partly because of fears that the river's warm water is harming its health.

French authorities were even ready to inject vitamins into the beluga whale s they raced to save the malnourished creature which was refusing food.

The visibly underweight whale was first spotted last week in the river that flows through Paris to the English Channel. On Saturday it had made its way to around 70 kilometres north of the French capital.

Rescuers had tried feeding it frozen herring and then live trout, but it did not seem to accept either. Authorities wanted to keep the animal in the waterway so it could regain its appetite or guide it back toward the sea.

The sighting comes just a few months after a killer whale -- also known as an orca, but technically part of the dolphin family -- became stranded in the Seine and was later found dead between Le Havre and Rouen in late May.

An autopsy found that the animal, more than four metres long, had likely suffered exhaustion after being unable to feed, though officials said they had also discovered a bullet lodged in the base of its skull -- though it was far from clear that the wound played a role in its death.

In September 2018, a beluga whale was spotted in the River Thames near Gravesend, east of London, for a few days, in what was then the most southerly sighting of a beluga on British shores.

Hopes of saving a malnourished beluga whale began to fade as rescuers ruled out euthanasia. Authorities decided to pluck the whale from the Seine river and transport it.

Officials had said earlier that based on sonar recordings it was also emitting very few of the chirps and quicks the whales are known for, raising further concerns about the animal's health.

 

 

Athorities claimed lone belugas do sometimes swim further south than usual, and are able to temporarily survive in fresh water.

While they migrate away from the Arctic in the autumn to feed as ice forms, they rarely venture so far south.

Sea Shepherd, which is involved in the rescue operation said the whale could not remain in the warm, non-salty river water much longer as rescue operations began.