A gray whale more than 7 meters long was seen this Tuesday afternoon in the Mediterranean, at Palavas-les-Flots (Hérault).
The animal was approached at the mouth of the Prévost pond by several divers from the firefighters, who accompanied a team of scientists to observe it.
According to Adrien Gannier, veterinarian and member of the Marine Mammal Stranding network, it would be the specimen, lost far from the Pacific, which was seen a few days ago in the Alpes-Maritimes
(read here)
. They were first of all witnesses who saw the animal, in Palavas-les-Flots, before specialists approached it. It is a calf, about fifteen months old. A first, in the French Mediterranean.
Where now is he going to go?
"If we are optimistic, we can imagine that it will continue to the South, and within a few weeks, it will manage to leave the Mediterranean, passing through Gibraltar, says Adrien Gannier at
20 Minutes.
If we are pessimistic, we may fear that it no longer has enough strength, that it is too disturbed by boaters or that it is caught in a fishing net.
Or that he does not have the reflex to go to the South.
Because it is spring, and in the head of a whale, you have to go north, to go towards the poles.
It is an intellectual gymnastics that we are not sure he has.
I prefer to remain optimistic.
"
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Antibes: Lost far from the Pacific, a gray whale observed for the first time in the French Mediterranean
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