Illustration of a stranded whale, here at Cap Ferret, in 2005. – P. Saura / SIPA
Their death remains unexplained for the time being. Off the coast of Brittany, fishermen have seen several bodies of whales adrift in recent days. According to West France, a whale 8 to 10 meters long was spotted off the Etel estuary, in Morbihan. This fisherman’s testimony is all the more disturbing as the latter claims to have already captured a corpse in his nets the previous week, not far from the neighboring island of Groix.
A mortality that may question because a month earlier, a towing had been necessary to evacuate the carcass of a whale of nearly 17 meters which had been discovered near Belle-Ile. An imposing corpse which could represent a danger for navigation and had pushed the authorities to evacuate it to the port of Lorient.
The reasons for the death of these cetaceans often remain unclear. “The collision with ships is one of the factors of mortality”, explained last year the Pelagis observatory in La Rochelle after yet another stranding. “But, the most likely hypothesis is infection,” the scientists reminded us.