Status: 05/30/2022 11:28 am
Killer whale lost in French Seine to be euthanized This was announced by French authorities. Experts had previously discovered an advanced disease in the animal on drone images.
An orca has been swimming in the French Seine for weeks. After a failed rescue operation, the animal is now to be euthanized, said the responsible prefecture of Seine-Maritime.
The animal is hardly lively, behaves erratically and disoriented. As the prefecture further announced, tumors and rashes can be seen on aerial photographs of the animal. The orca is suffering from an advanced fungal infestation that can cause great suffering to the animal.
In addition, other weakened mammals could become infected. The orca’s disease could also affect the brain. This could explain his disorientation. Therefore, the expert group “unanimously decided that the only possible solution is to put the animal to sleep,” said the responsible regional authority.
First rescue attempt failed
On Saturday, a team consisting of scientists, police and fire brigade, among others, set out to try to guide the stray orca towards the sea with the help of whale noises.
The killer whale “showed a lack of vivacity, contradictory responses to sound stimuli and straying and disoriented behavior,” the regional authority said after the experiment.
A drone was also used in the rescue attempt, which took pictures of the infected animal. In order not to inflict even more stress on the animal, the experiment was stopped.
Orca has been wandering along the coast since April
According to the Marine Mammal Research Group (GEEC), the whale was first sighted in early April by the crew of a trawler about 30 kilometers off the Normandy coast. The video recordings are clear. There is no doubt that it is an orca.
Since then it has been repeatedly spotted along the coast, in the Seine estuary and around 60 kilometers upstream in the Seine near Yainville. Orcas are more commonly found off the coasts of Scotland, Iceland and Norway, and further south in the Atlantic Ocean in the Bay of Biscay, a GEEC expert explained. But instead of moving towards the sea, the orca kept swimming back and forth.
Why the animal appeared in the Seine is unclear. It has been speculated that the whale first strayed into the English Channel because it is ill and can feed more easily in the calmer waters there.