In Seine Beluga Whale

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In Seine Beluga Whale

#1 Post by PHXPhlyer » Sat Aug 06, 2022 3:12 am

Rescuers face race against time to rescue beluga whale in France’s River Seine
“If we don’t feed him quickly, it’s hopeless,” said Lamya Essemlali, the head of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which is helping with the rescue effort. “He will die.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/resc ... -rcna41698

PARIS — Emergency services in France are facing a race against time to save a beluga whale that has swum into the River Seine and is heading south toward Paris.

“It is puzzling for sure,” Emmanuel Pasco-Viel, the operations coordinator in Normandy’s l’Eure prefecture, told NBC News Friday.

The beluga, an endangered species that is better suited to freezing arctic and subarctic waters, was first spotted Tuesday, said Pasco-Viel, who is responsible for monitoring it.

He added that firefighters, police officers and members of the military have been brought in to help guide the whale back into its natural saltwater habitat, along with the coast guard.

“We had a helicopter fly over the waters to help us track the beluga,” he said. “Even drones are used. We will decide what is the best way to help the beluga, and how to guide it back to sea.”

He added that on Wednesday the creature had been “stationary for three-four hours and I was able to observe it from the boats when it emerged to breathe.”

Locals have been warned to give a wide berth to the beluga to avoid stressing it further, he said.

Lamya Essemlali, the head of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which is helping with the rescue effort, said they were concerned because the whale was “extremely skinny.”

“If we don’t feed him quickly, it’s hopeless,” she said. “He will die.”

She added that they were trying to lure the mammal back to the mouth of the Seine with a diet of fresh fish.

“If we just drive him to the sea from the Seine, his chances of survival are weak,” she said, adding that scientists will try to get DNA samples to work out where the whale is from — likely Canada, Norway or Russia. Once that is determined, she said she hoped they could transport him home by plane.

Recognizable by their white skin and bulbous heads, beluga whales are normally between 13 to 20 feet long, according to the U.S.’ National Ocean Service, which also notes they are sociable and friendly creatures that normally travel in pods. However, lone ones sometimes venture farther south and can temporarily survive in freshwater.

It is not clear how this beluga whale ended up in the Seine, whose polluted waters and heavy river traffic add additional threats to the whale’s outlook.

“It’s a total mystery how it got there,” said Liz Sandeman, the co-founder of Marine Connection, a British marine wildlife conservation group that is helping to provide information to French authorities.

“You just don’t expect to see a beluga whale near a European capital city,” she added.

“This beluga whale is extremely far from home,” she said. “It will be dehydrated, it won’t really be feeding, and it’s much too far south.”

She added that there was “another solitary beluga whale in Norway,” but “even that is too far south.”

Pasco-Viel added that there had been “three separate incidents of mammals leaving the sea to be discovered in the French rivers” in the past three months.

In May, an orca died in the Seine after attempts failed to lure it back to the ocean using a drone emitting whale sounds. It was later found to be suffering from mucormycosis, a fungal disease that starts in the skin before attacking vital organs.

Then, in June, a 33-foot Minke whale was spotted in the Seine, but it returned to the sea after its brief sojourn into the river.

Sightings of whales, dolphins and walruses are likely to be more common in areas across Europe given the onset of climate change, Sandeman said.

“With ice melting, animals are able to access locations they were only previously able to get to once or twice per year. Now animals are seeking out new locations and waters further afield. Migration patterns are changing. Climate change isn’t everything, but it’s definitely having an effect,” she said.

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Re: In Seine Beluga Whale

#2 Post by TheGreenAnger » Sat Aug 06, 2022 4:38 am

These errant whale stories rarely turn out well. The whales that get into such navigational difficulties are often unwell and the stress often kills them. Here's hoping that this case proves to be an exception.
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Re: In Seine Beluga Whale

#3 Post by Ex-Ascot » Sat Aug 06, 2022 8:11 am

It doesn't sound very well and with the frogs in charge what chance does it stand?
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Re: In Seine Beluga Whale

#4 Post by Groundgripper » Sat Aug 06, 2022 8:25 am

Do belugas eat frogs?

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Re: In Seine Beluga Whale

#5 Post by TheGreenAnger » Sat Aug 06, 2022 8:56 am

Groundgripper wrote:
Sat Aug 06, 2022 8:25 am
Do belugas eat frogs?

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No, they are big caviar fans. They eschew frog's legs, they are not that insane!
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Re: In Seine Beluga Whale

#6 Post by Ex-Ascot » Mon Aug 08, 2022 11:04 am

'Yes, Madam, I am drunk, but in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly.' Sir Winston Churchill.

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Re: In Seine Beluga Whale

#7 Post by Pinky the pilot » Mon Aug 08, 2022 11:13 am

Once tried some Beluga Caviar. Insanely expensive though...
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Re: In Seine Beluga Whale

#8 Post by PHXPhlyer » Tue Aug 09, 2022 2:53 pm

Rescuers to move whale stranded in French river to saltwater

https://www.abc15.com/news/national/res ... -saltwater

French environmentalists will try to move a dangerously thin beluga whale that strayed into the Seine River last week to a saltwater river basin Tuesday to try and save its life.

The mammal, measuring four meters (13 feet), will be transported there for “a period of care” by medics who suspect the mammal is sick and in a race against the clock, said Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd France.

If the whale responds to treatment, it may finally be released back to the open sea.

While it wasn't immediately clear how environmentalists would be able to transfer the whale to the river basin, French media said they might use a barge and then a truck.

Conservationists were hoping to spare the whale the fate of another, an orca, that strayed into and then died in the Seine in May.

The marine conservation group has described plans to move the beluga -- which was first spotted last week in the Seine, worryingly far from its Arctic habitat -- as an “enormous operation.”

While the move “has a risk factor because it’s stressful” for the animal, it can't survive much longer in the Seine’s fresh water, the group said.

Because of the extreme heat in France's Eure region, rescuers are expected to wait until late afternoon before moving the creature, which weighs 800 kilograms (nearly a ton) and which French media say may be transported on a barge and covered in wet towels to keep it cool.

Authorities suspect that the whale is ill. Yet they remain hopeful it may survive after it responded to a cocktail of antibiotics and vitamins the last few days and visibly “rubbed itself on the lock’s wall and got rid of patches that had appeared on its back.”

Essemlali said that the medical surveillance at the saltwater river basin will help establish whether the mammal “is suffering from something we can help it with, or from an incurable illness.”

Drone footage subsequently shot by French fire services last week showed the whale gently meandering into a stretch of the river’s light green waters between Paris and the Normandy city of Rouen that is far inland from the sea.

Conservationists have tried unsuccessfully since Friday to feed fish to the creature, with Sea Shepherd fearing the whale is slowly starving in the waterway.

Authorities in the Eure region said in a statement Friday night that the beluga has a “fleeing behavior vis-a-vis the boats” and hasn't responded to attempts to guide it to safer waters.

The people trying to help the whale have thus far tried to be as unobtrusive as possible to “avoid stress that could aggravate his state of health,” according to a statement.

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Re: In Seine Beluga Whale

#9 Post by TheGreenAnger » Wed Aug 10, 2022 11:23 am

My necessaries are embark'd: farewell. Adieu! I have too grieved a heart to take a tedious leave.

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Re: In Seine Beluga Whale

#10 Post by G-CPTN » Wed Aug 10, 2022 1:21 pm

It was probably 'on its way to die' despite the efforts of rescuers.

"A beluga whale that had strayed into France's River Seine has been euthanised, French authorities have said.
It developed breathing difficulties during its transfer from the Paris waterway to the coast and had to be euthanised."

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