The beluga was discovered on August 2 in the river that crosses the French capital and reaches the English Channel. Since Friday, the animal has been between two locks 70 km north of Paris. Leaving her in those warm, calm waters is no longer an option.
“She must be transferred within 24 to 48 hours, these conditions are not good,” Lamia al-Smalali, head of the NGO “Sea Shepherd” in France, told AFP. He said experts had “not much hope” for significantly underweight mammals.
“We all doubt her ability to return to the sea,” he added. “Even if we took her on a ship, it would be extremely dangerous or impossible,” she said. Ismali added that the option of euthanasia is currently excluded.
He said the whale still had “energy (…) turning its head and reacting to stimuli.” Rescue teams tried to feed her, but so far it has not worked. Another option to consider is to take the animal out of the water, give it vitamins, examine it and send it to sea.
The beluga whale is a protected species of whale that usually lives in the cold waters of the arctic.
According to the Pelagic Observatory, which specializes in marine mammals, this is the second record in France after a fisherman in the Loire Estuary caught a specimen in his nets in 1948.
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