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ENVIRONMENT

‘Little hope’ of saving beluga whale stranded in France’s River Seine

Hopes of saving a malnourished beluga whale that has swum up the Seine river were receding on Sunday, but rescuers said they have ruled out "euthanasia" for now.

A beluga whale swims between two locks on the Seine river, in Notre-Dame-de-la-Garenne, northwestern France
A beluga whale swims between two locks on the Seine river, in Notre-Dame-de-la-Garenne, northwestern France, on August 6, 2022. Photo by JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER / AFP

The whale was first spotted on Tuesday in the river that runs through Paris to the English Channel. Since Friday it has been between two locks some 70 kilometres (44 miles) north of the French capital.

But leaving it in the warm stagnant water between the lock gates is no longer an option.

“He has to be moved in the coming 24-48 hours, these conditions are not good for him,” Sea Shepherd France head Lamya Essemlali told AFP.

Specialists held out “little hope” for the visibly underweight whale, Essemlali said.

“We are all doubtful about its own ability to return to the sea,” she said.

A beluga whale swims between two locks on the Seine river, in Notre-Dame-de-la-Garenne, northwestern France, on August 6, 2022. (Photo by Jean-François MONIER / AFP)

“Even if we ‘drove’ it with a boat, that would be extremely dangerous, if not impossible”.

However, “the euthanasia option has been ruled out for the moment, because at this stage it would be premature,” she said.

The whale still has “energy … turns its head, reacts to stimuli”, she said after a meeting of experts and French officials.

Although rescuers have tried feeding it frozen herring and then live trout, the animal was refusing the food.

“His lack of appetite is surely a symptom of something else… an illness.

He is malnourished and this dates back weeks, if not months. He was no longer eating at sea,” Essemlali said.

Small spots that were reported on its pale skin on Saturday were likely due to the fresh water, Sea Shepherd said.

President of marine conservation NGO Sea Shepherd France Lamya Essemlali (2nd R) gathers with colleagues near the Notre-Dame-de-la-Garenne lock as they work with local authorities to rescue a beluga whale in the Seine river in Notre-Dame-de-la-Garenne, northwestern France, on August 6, 2022. (Photo by Jean-François MONIER / AFP)

Another option under consideration would be to take it out of the water, give it vitamins, check the cause of the illness and ship it out to sea to feed.

Rare sighting

Belugas are normally found only in cold Arctic waters, and while they migrate south in the autumn to feed as ice forms, they rarely venture so far.

An adult can reach up to four metres (13 feet) in length.

According to France’s Pelagis Observatory, specialised in sea mammals, the nearest beluga population is off the Svalbard archipelago, north of Norway, 3,000 kilometres (1,800 miles) from the Seine.

It is only the second recorded sighting of a beluga in a French river since 1948, when a fisherman in the estuary of the Loire river found one in his nets.

The sighting comes just a few months after a killer whale — also known as an orca, but technically part of the dolphin family — became stranded in the Seine and was later found dead between Le Havre and Rouen in late May.

READ ALSO: VIDEO: ‘Lost’ Orca whale heading up France’s Seine river

An autopsy found the animal, more than four metres long, had likely suffered exhaustion after being unable to feed.

Officials said they had also discovered a bullet lodged in the base of its skull — though it was far from clear that the wound played a role in its death.

 

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ENVIRONMENT

Homes evacuated as floods hit village in French Alps

More than 50 people had to be evacuated from their homes in a village in the French Alps as violent storms struck the south-east of the country.

Homes evacuated as floods hit village in French Alps

Less than four years after storm Alex struck the Boréon area of the Alpes-Maritimes département in September 2020, leading to 10 deaths, it was once again hit by severe weather, as the storms combined with high-altitude snow melt caused the Vésubie river to burst its banks.

The 1,400-population village of Saint-Martin-Vésubie, which was cut off from the rest of the country by the devastating 2020 storm, was again affected by severe weather.

Thierry Ingigliardi, the village’s deputy mayor in charge said: “Everything is being destroyed, we’re suffering the loss of roads yet again.” 

As a precaution, 52 people, including four children, were evacuated to a community hall.

But there was some confusion over the scale of damage caused by the flooding, after current Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin posted a message on X, formerly Twitter, saying that bridges had been washed away in the flooding. 

“None of the bridges are threatened, two fords have been washed away,” Gaël Nofri, deputy mayor of Nice, clarified on the social network.

But at least two bridges have been damaged, leaving around 20 homes cut off, while two other structures are still ‘under surveillance’, as the local council reported earlier. The latter also deplored “temporary infrastructures that are not holding”.

Hugues Moutouh, prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes region, told BFMTV: “Everyone is annoyed (…) It’s been going on for months now, we’re using temporary structures.”

Moutouh says he did not want “to come here again to see how powerless we are” when seasonal storms known as épisodes méditerranéens return in autumn. 

The storms in the Alps led to ‘once-in-a-century’ flooding in the Vaud canton of Switzlerand. Around one month’s rain fall fell in just an hour and caused major flooding in the town of Morges, which stands on the banks of Lake Geneva.

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