Killer whale stranded in France’s River Seine dies after rescue effort fails
Thomas Kingsley
Mon, May 30, 2022,
The whale died of natural causes it has been confirmed
(Slater Moore Photography/The Washington Post)
A killer whale stranded in the River Seine in France has died of natural causes, the campaign group Sea Shepherd said on Monday, after attempts to guide it back to sea failed.
"We found him late this morning," Lamya Essemlali, head of Sea Shepherd France, told Reuters.
During an attempt on Saturday to lure the whale back out to sea with a drone emitting orca sounds, the animal behaved incoherently and emitted distress calls, local officials said.
By Monday, it resembled nothing more than "a ghost of an orca", Ms Essemlali said, and it died before any attempt at euthanization could be made.
The whale's body will be moved to the shore of the river and an autopsy will be conducted, local officials said in a statement.
The orca was first spotted at the mouth of the Seine on 16 May between the port of Le Havre and the town of Honfleur in Normandy, before it swam miles upstream west of the city of Rouen.
Plans were announced on Sunday by French authorities for the whale to be euthanised after a plan to guide it back to sea failed and scientists concluded it was in agonising pain and terminally ill, the local prefecture said on Sunday.
The whale responded “erratically” and “incoherently” to a rescue mission on Saturday highlighting that the whale was in distress.
"The attempt to bring back the whale to sea having failed, and to prevent adding to it stress levels, a decision was made to stop the intervention in the evening," marine mammal specialists overseeing the mission said.
A killer whale stranded in the River Seine in France has died of natural causes, the campaign group Sea Shepherd said on Monday, after attempts to guide it back to sea failed.
"We found him late this morning," Lamya Essemlali, head of Sea Shepherd France, told Reuters.
During an attempt on Saturday to lure the whale back out to sea with a drone emitting orca sounds, the animal behaved incoherently and emitted distress calls, local officials said.
By Monday, it resembled nothing more than "a ghost of an orca", Ms Essemlali said, and it died before any attempt at euthanization could be made.
The whale's body will be moved to the shore of the river and an autopsy will be conducted, local officials said in a statement.
The orca was first spotted at the mouth of the Seine on 16 May between the port of Le Havre and the town of Honfleur in Normandy, before it swam miles upstream west of the city of Rouen.
Plans were announced on Sunday by French authorities for the whale to be euthanised after a plan to guide it back to sea failed and scientists concluded it was in agonising pain and terminally ill, the local prefecture said on Sunday.
The whale responded “erratically” and “incoherently” to a rescue mission on Saturday highlighting that the whale was in distress.
"The attempt to bring back the whale to sea having failed, and to prevent adding to it stress levels, a decision was made to stop the intervention in the evening," marine mammal specialists overseeing the mission said.
Body of minke whale spotted near Montreal recovered from river, necropsy performed
Saturday
MONTREAL — A dead whale found in the St. Lawrence River northeast of Montreal is likely the second of two minke whales spotted in the area earlier this month.
A Quebec marine mammal research group says the whale was recovered Friday from the waters near Contrecoeur, Que., about 50 kilometres downstream from Montreal.
A post to the Quebec Marine Mammal Emergency Response Network's website says the male whale, about 3.8 metres long and believed to be one to two years old, was transported to St-Hyacinthe for a necropsy.
The group says the state of the animal suggests it had died between a few days and a week earlier and its skin was covered with a fungi similar to that found on a humpback whale who died after a stay in Montreal in 2020, indicative of a prolonged stay in freshwater.
Minke whales are common in Quebec but don't generally venture west of the saltwater St. Lawrence estuary around Tadoussac, Que.
A final necropsy report is not expected for a few months, but the group says there was no obvious cause of death or signs of trauma observed, although an absence of food in the stomach suggests it had not fed recently.
It says there is no sign of the other minke whale, who was first spotted around May 8 in the Montreal area before both vanished around mid-May.
The Canadian Press
MONTREAL — A dead whale found in the St. Lawrence River northeast of Montreal is likely the second of two minke whales spotted in the area earlier this month.
A Quebec marine mammal research group says the whale was recovered Friday from the waters near Contrecoeur, Que., about 50 kilometres downstream from Montreal.
A post to the Quebec Marine Mammal Emergency Response Network's website says the male whale, about 3.8 metres long and believed to be one to two years old, was transported to St-Hyacinthe for a necropsy.
The group says the state of the animal suggests it had died between a few days and a week earlier and its skin was covered with a fungi similar to that found on a humpback whale who died after a stay in Montreal in 2020, indicative of a prolonged stay in freshwater.
Minke whales are common in Quebec but don't generally venture west of the saltwater St. Lawrence estuary around Tadoussac, Que.
A final necropsy report is not expected for a few months, but the group says there was no obvious cause of death or signs of trauma observed, although an absence of food in the stomach suggests it had not fed recently.
It says there is no sign of the other minke whale, who was first spotted around May 8 in the Montreal area before both vanished around mid-May.
The Canadian Press
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