Condition deteriorated due to lack of air during transport
Medical staff “euthanized because there is no hope of resuscitation”
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A beluga whale, trapped in the Seine River in France, died on the 10th (local time) while being transported to a brine inflow zone in Normandy, northern France.
It adds to the pity why Beluga, who had to live in the cold Arctic Ocean, had a hard time flowing to the Seine River in France.
Authorities in the northern French province of Calvados said on Twitter: “We are saddened to report the death of a whale during an unprecedented rescue operation.”
According to authorities, Beluga, who was imprisoned at the St-Pierre-Lagaren sluice gate, about 70 kilometers west of Paris, was euthanized by medical staff who determined that there was no hope of resuscitation after being transported by truck to a saltwater inflow basin near the port of Wistream.
The rescue team, made up of veterinarians, divers, firefighters, and police, started working the night before to rescue the beluga, which was 4 meters long and weighed 800 kg.
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It took about 6 hours just to put about 10 divers into the net, and it took the beluga out of the water only at 4 am that day using a crane.
After undergoing a medical examination, the beluga was transported to a special refrigerated truck and began to have difficulty breathing while moving at a very slow speed to the port.
The veterinarian who accompanied the beluga said, “We decided to euthanize the beluga after seeing that it was visibly in pain due to lack of air while moving.”
The beluga, first discovered in the Seine River on the 2nd, was malnourished to the extent that its bones were exposed, but it completely abolished food and drink, such as not eating frozen food or live food.
The French authorities thought that it would be dangerous to return the beluga directly to the sea, so they tried to restore the beluga’s health by administering vitamins in the salt water basin and then returning it to the sea, but in vain.
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Belugas, which live mainly in the Arctic Ocean, sometimes come down to the south to find food in the fall, but even such cases are known to be rare.
Currently, the closest beluga habitat to France is in the Svalbard Islands, north of Norway, about 3000 km from the Seine.
Meanwhile, this is the second time a beluga has been found in a French river since it was caught in a fisherman’s net at the mouth of the Loire River in 1948.
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Reporter Lee Bo-bae, Hankyung.com [email protected]
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