A beluga whale that had been trapped in the Seine river in northern France for more than a week was pulled from the water early Wednesday in a daring rescue operation, but authorities said the animal died as it was brought back toward the shore in a refrigerated truck.
“Despite an exceptional rescue effort, we must regretfully report that the cetacean has perished,” officials in the Normandy area of Calvados tweeted, adding that the whale had to be put down during transit.
The 1,800-pound whale was hauled from the river by a net and crane about 4:00 a.m. (10 p.m. Eastern) and put on a barge under the direct care of a dozen vets after almost six hours of effort by dozens of divers and rescuers.
The beluga, a protected species located in freezing Arctic seas, was then given a health check before being taken to the coastal town of Ouistreham on a refrigerated truck.
Inside a truck in Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne, northern France, on August 10, 2022, veterinarians care for a beluga whale that was removed from a lock in the Seine river before going out for Ouistreham (Calvados).
The aim had been to put the beluga in a seawater lock for monitoring for several days before releasing it into the free sea. However, authorities in Eure, where the beluga was stranded, claimed the whale was emaciated and in poor condition when it was pulled out of the river.
“It bodes for a negative vital prognosis, according to vets,” the Eure prefecture said in a statement after the first stage of the rescue effort, which it described as “especially complicated.”
The 13-foot whale was sighted moving toward Paris more than a week ago and was stranded about 81 miles inland from the Channel at Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne in Normandy.
The animal’s inland march had been blocked by a lock at Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne, 44 miles northwest of Paris, since Friday, and its condition had worsened as it refused to feed.
The secretary general of the Eure prefecture, Isabelle Dorliat-Pouzet, had said that medical examinations would be performed prior to transferring the whale.
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On August 9, 2022, veterinarians care for a stranded beluga whale in the Seine River at Notre Dame de la-Garenne, northern France.
AFP/GETTY JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER
“He is a guy, he is quite underweight, and he has a few lesions,” she said.
The animal’s rescue was widely publicized early Wednesday, when it was pulled from the river after a tense few days.
“Today is a fantastic day for this beluga whale and everyone involved in its rescue,” Sea Shepherd wrote on its website. The effort to return it to the water, however, was never without significant hazards, according to Isabelle Brasseur of the Marineland marine animal park in southern France, who was part of a Marineland team sent to help with the rescue.
“He might die now, during the handling, during the travel, or at point B,” she told AFP in Ouistreham on Tuesday, before gently loading the horse onto the truck.
The 24 divers and rescuers managing the ropes had to attempt multiple times between 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. to entice the animal into the nets so it could be hoisted out of the sea.
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On August 5, 2022, a beluga whale is observed swimming up France’s Seine river at a lock in Courcelles-sur-Seine, western France.
People gathered along the river’s banks to watch as preparations for the operation began.
Officials reported that interest in the beluga’s plight has reached well beyond France, resulting in a massive flood of money gifts and other help from conservation organisations and people.
Belugas seldom go this far south in the fall to eat when ice builds in their native Arctic seas.
The closest beluga population, according to France’s Pelagis Observatory, lies off the Svalbard island, north of Norway, around 1,800 miles from the Seine.