The beluga lost in the Seine worries.
This protected and endangered species is more familiar with the waters of Canada or the Arctic, but it is not the first to venture into the Seine.
At the beginning of July, a whale had been seen, as well as an orca in May in the mouth of the Seine.
The latter died of starvation.
To prevent such a scenario from happening again, the NGO Sea Shepherd France has taken the lead, proposing to the State services on site (the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) as well as the Departmental Directorate for Population Protection ( DDPP) to cooperate to enable a rescue of the animal.
After Sedna, the orca who met a tragic end last June, it is a beluga who sank into the Seine.
We are in contact with the @Prefet27 and our teams are mobilizing urgently to get there.
Let's do everything to prevent history from repeating itself.
— Sea Shepherd France (@SeaShepherdFran) August 3, 2022
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Sea Shepherd thus proposes to offer its experience and expertise in all stages of the rescue.
Contacted, Lamya Essemlali, the president of the NGO, explains that the organization welcomes two former trainers specializing in cetaceans, a family that includes the beluga, as well as a marine biologist.
Worrying state
"If he stays in the Seine, he will die," says the president of Sea Shepherd.
The priority today is therefore to find a way for him to find the cold waters of the Arctic in the best conditions.
And the association is not alone in worrying about it
State services, firefighters, SNSM, French Biodiversity Office (OFB), Cotentin Cetacean Study Group (GEEC) and the Pelagis laboratory were mobilized all day to assess the health status " worrying” of the animal which “seems to present skin alterations and to be emaciated”, specified the prefecture.
Contacted by AFP, Gérard Mauger, vice-president of the GEEC, described a “well-toned animal, which spends very little time on the surface and performs long apneas, a sign that its lung capacity “remains good” but a behavior that complicates the task of the rescuers, the prefecture indicating that the cetacean "flees the boats and does not allow itself to be guided in the direction of the mouth of the Seine".
Drones to spot it
The president of the association for the defense of the oceans Sea Shepherd, Lamya Essemlali, declared that one of its teams would arrive on the spot in the evening equipped with drones to locate it more easily and that "the urgency is already to feed it for prevent him from suffering the same fate as the killer whale found dead of starvation" in the same river at the end of May.
"The environment is not very welcoming for the beluga, the Seine is very polluted and cetaceans are extremely sensitive to noise, yet the Seine is very noisy with its very heavy navigation╗, added Lamya Essemlali.
The authorities appeal for caution and ask "the entire population not to attempt to approach or come into contact with the animal to facilitate the work of all State services, mobilized for the preservation of wildlife.
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