France prepares complex rescue of a lost beluga in the Seine river

First modification: 08/09/2022 – 22:00

The cetacean, if the delicate operation is successful, will initially be placed in a saltwater lock to regain strength and receive veterinary care, before being returned to the ocean.

The marine mammal, detected on August 2, is trapped in a lock on the Seine, about 130 kilometers from the mouth of the river in the English Channel.

He lost a lot of weight and appears to be sick but his condition is “satisfactory,” Isabelle Brasseur, from the Marineland marine animal park in southern France, the largest in Europe, told the AFP news agency.

How it got there is unknown, since belugas live in the cold waters of the Arctic, and although they descend south in autumn, they never venture that far.

His presence and the rescue operation in preparation generate a great deal of interest inside and outside France. Several foundations, associations and individuals have made donations to help save it.

Beluga whales cannot survive long in fresh water. The first step in the plan is then to take it overland to a sea basin.

There “he will be lavished with attention [veterinaria], hoping that it is a curable disease. It will then be released into the sea,” said ocean advocacy organization Sea Shepherd.

“Obstacle race”

Carrying out this plan is a true “obstacle race”, warned the NGO.

Isabelle Brasseur explained that it is an operation “out of the ordinary” from the first stage, because the vehicles cannot access the banks of the Seine on that stretch and all the material “has to be transported by hand”.

The presence of a beluga in the current conditions – a lock of stagnant water in the middle of summer, 125 meters long by 25 wide – cannot last long.

“We have to get her out of there and try to figure out what’s wrong,” Brasseur said.

The animal “may have internal problems that we can’t see”, although belugas are an “extremely hardy” species, he said.

The NGO ‘Sea Shepherd France’ pointed out that sedation was not an option, as belugas need to be awake to inhale air.

In May, an orca was found trapped in the same river. Operations to save her failed and the animal starved to death.

According to the ‘Pelagis’ Observatory, which specializes in marine mammals, the closest beluga population is found off the Svalbard archipelago, in northern Norway, about 3,000 kilometers from the Seine.

It is, according to that institution, the second beluga reported in France. The first had reached the Loire River, in a fisherman’s nets, in 1948.