A seven-meter-long humpback whale ran aground Wednesday on the beaches of Carnon, near La Grande-Motte.
The cetacean, already dead on arrival of caregivers, was evacuated by the city's technical services and must undergo an autopsy on Thursday.
A seven-meter-long humpback whale stranded and was found dead Wednesday afternoon on the beaches of Carnon, near La Grande-Motte, in Hérault.
"As soon as we arrived, she was already dead. Before running aground, she had not been spotted at all, which is quite improbable", explained Élodie Sene, animal groomer at the Seaquarium of Grau-du-Roi and member of Gecem (cetacean study group in the Mediterranean).
"I've never seen it, it's the first time I've seen it in the Mediterranean," she added.
An autopsy scheduled for Thursday morning
With a total length of seven meters, the humpback whale was evacuated by the city's technical services.
It will be stored in a technical area while waiting for an autopsy to be carried out on Thursday morning in order to understand the reasons for this stranding.
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The humpback whale is not one of the species regularly observed in the Mediterranean, unlike the fin whale.
For several weeks, attention had focused on a lost gray whale in the Mediterranean, whose chances of finding its environment - the North Pacific - were extremely low.
Entering this closed sea at the level of Morocco, it cut from North Africa to Italy, went up the Italian and French coasts.
The Spanish press reported a few days ago its presence in Mallorca, very weakened.