Thibaud Hue with AFP 06:54, February 11, 2022
A humpback whale almost ten meters long was stranded Thursday morning on a beach in Pas-de-Calais.
This female found dead could have been surprised by the numerous sandbanks on the beaches east of Calais, but an autopsy must be carried out this Friday.
A humpback whale almost ten meters long ran aground and was found dead on Thursday morning on a beach in Pas-de-Calais, between Calais and Marck, an "exceptional" phenomenon according to a specialist.
"This 9.53 meter whale was stranded on Fort Vert beach. It is a female. It is an exceptional phenomenon for the region", said Jacky Karpouzopoulos, president of the Mammalogical Coordination of the northern France (CMNF) and "responsible for strandings" in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, confirming information from France 3 Hauts-de-France.
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Between 20 and 25 tons
This whale, which weighs "between 20 and 25 tons", was taken out of the "swing zone" of the tides on Thursday afternoon "so that it does not go back to the sea".
It is a dead body and "it can be dangerous for navigation", added Jacky Karpouzopoulos.
With the help of “heavy machinery”, we will “pull her up the beach as high as possible” and on Friday “we will do her autopsy”.
"We will open the animal on the beach, cut it up and the whale will go to be rendered," he said.
"This type of stranding is quite rare on our coast, the passage of cetacean migrations taking place further north of England", explained Yoan Demassieux, one of the caretakers of the League for the Protection of Animals (LPA) at Calais.
This whale "died only a few hours ago, it is possible that she was surprised by the numerous sandbanks here on the beaches of eastern Calais" and "that she died of suffocation by her own weight ", he says, without ruling out the possibility of a possible illness.
In November, a fin whale of 19 meters and about fifteen tons, was stranded in the port of Calais after being injured.