This is a big, a very big discovery. A cetacean stranded in the old port of Calais (Pas-de-Calais) was discovered on Saturday, reports France blue.
According to the Animal Protection League (LPA), which visited the site, it is more precisely a fin whale, one of the largest animals in the world after the blue whale. This marine mammal did not survive being stranded on the beach.
This fin whale measured about 19 meters and weighed about fifteen tons. The LPA believes that this was a female who did not have much time to live, whether or not she was stranded. “We initially thought we could treat her, but she died an hour later,” said a local representative of the LPA. The beast would have injured itself on the rocks as it approached the port.
“It hit a metal pillar near the ro-ro terminal and ran aground. It caused a lot of bleeding ”, relates to The voice of the North Marcel Charpentier, president of the LPA in Calais. “She was ill, she returned to the port of Calais still alive, she went too close to the rocks and she ran aground”, told AFP Jacky Karpouzopoulos, president of the Mammalogical Coordination of the North of France (CMNF), describing a “violent” scene.
The whale must be evacuated Monday at high tide by port services, the newspaper said. An autopsy is due on Tuesday.
The LPA recalls that this kind of grounding happens infrequently.