“We don’t have a choice,” said Lamya Essemlali, Sea Shepherd France President, before the rescue mission. “He has to move from here because this environment is not suitable for his health.”
The beluga was first spotted last week swimming up the Seine. Rescue workers tried to feed the thin-looking mammal trout and squid, but he refused to eat.
The endangered species are better suited to arctic and subarctic waters, with their thick skin allowing them to live in freezing cold water. Beluga whales migrate south during the fall and return in spring when ice in the arctic starts to melt, according to the World Wildlife Foundation. They sometimes stay near, or travel in, rivers.
It is not clear how this beluga whale ended up in the Seine, whose polluted waters and heavy river traffic added additional threats to the whale’s outlook.
“It’s a total mystery how it got there,” said Liz Sandeman, the co-founder of Marine Connection, a British marine wildlife conservation group that is helping to provide information to French authorities.
“You just don’t expect to see a beluga whale near a European capital city,” she added.
This is not the first time a whale has been spotted around a major European city, though. In 2018 another beluga swam its way down England’s River Thames, just outside London.
Nancy Ing reported from Paris, and Elizabeth Kuhr reported from London.
Associated Press contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
