The state of the cetacean, which since Friday has been in a lock located 70 km from Paris, is becoming more and more worrying. In May, an orca in the same situation ended up starving to death.
Vitamins will be administered to the beluga which is in the Seine about 70 km from Paris so that he regains his appetite when he no longer eats, the Eure prefecture announced on Saturday. “The vitamins are administered by a veterinarian with the usual means, arrowing (…). There is no need to be impressed by this technique“, declared Isabelle Dorliat-Pouzet, secretary general of the prefecture of Eure, during a press briefing on Saturday near the lock of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garenne.
Read alsoAfter the killer whale, a beluga observed in the Seine
The beluga, a four-meter cetacean whose presence in the Seine is exceptional, still continued not to eat on Saturday, while it has been in a lock measuring approximately 125 m by 25 m since Friday. .
“He is a fairly emaciated individual and seems to have feeding difficulties.“said Ms. Dorliat-Pouzet. Attempts to feed it, with dead herring and then live trout, apparently did not succeed.
Among the hypotheses to prevent the cetacean from perishing are the reopening “from the lock to the sea, 160 km away, so that he can resume his journey“or keep it in the basin”so that he can regain his appetite“.
Asked about the possibility of extracting it from the basin, Ms. Dorliat-Pouzet replied that this was not the preferred hypothesis because the specialists are not certain “that the beluga is strong enough to withstand this manipulation“.
Any decision will be madein the interest of the animal” and “no decision has been made yet“While analyzes are awaited, repeated the secretary general of the prefecture.
“Little spots”
Another element,small spotsappeared which may be natural due to soft water but may also mean “other difficulties“, according to the same source.
The beluga, which was Saturday “very calm“and going back and forth in the basin”calmly“, was spotted on August 2 in the Seine.
In May, it’s a killer whale which had found itself in difficulty in the Seine between Rouen and Le Havre. The operations to try to save the cetacean had failed and the animal had finally died of starvation.
According to Mrs. Dorliat-Pouzet, the situation between the killer whale and the beluga is “very different“. The orca “was weaker than the beluga” and “had disappeared from the radar for a while“. Those are “two different animals, the killer whale is less tolerant of fresh water than the beluga“, she explained.
According to the Pelagis observatory, which specializes in marine mammals, this is the second beluga known in France after a fisherman from the Loire estuary brought one up in his nets in 1948. The beluga is a protected species from cetacean usually living in cold waters.
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