A malnourished beluga whale that has swum up France's River Seine is no longer progressing but is still alive, environmental group Sea Shepherd said Monday.

Hopes are fading to save the animal, which was first spotted on Tuesday in the river that runs through Paris to the English Channel.

"It is alert but not eating," Sea Shepherd France president Lamya Essemlali told AFP in a text message.

There was, however, "no worsening of its condition", she said.

Since Friday, the whale has been between two locks some 70 kilometres (44 miles) north of the French capital.

Rescuers are considering last-ditch efforts to extract the animal from the Seine as the river's warm water is harming its health.

One alternative would be to open the locks in the hope that the beluga will swim towards the English Channel, authorities said.

Opening the locks would harbour the risk of the whale moving further upriver towards Paris, which would be even more disastrous.

Several attempts to feed the whale have failed in the past days.

A three-person team from Marineland, Europe's biggest sea animal theme park located in the southern French resort of Antibes, was expected to arrive on site later Monday.

"We've been following the operations at a distance from the start," said Isabelle Brasseur, in charge of education, research and conservation at Marineland.

"We are slowly making progress," she told AFP. "There's not an ideal solution, we must weigh the pros and the cons" of each option to rescue the whale.

One of the experts on the team is a specialist for sea mammals, she said, adding they were bringing a stretcher and other equipment to try and move the animal.

On Saturday, veterinarians administered "vitamins and products to stimulate its appetite", said a statement on Sunday by the police in Normandy's Eure department, which is overseeing the rescue effort.

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 from the Seine.

bur-jh/sjw/kjm

BELUGA

Related Links
Follow the Whaling Debate

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Faroe Islands to limit dolphin hunt quota to 500
Stockholm (AFP) July 10, 2022
The Faroe Islands said Sunday it would provisionally limit its controversial dolphin hunt to 500, following public outcry over the practice. "An annual catch limit of 500 white-sided dolphins has now been proposed by the Ministry of Fisheries on a provisional basis for 2022 and 2023," the government of the Danish autonomous territory said. The quota was set after the "unusually large catch" of 1,423 white-sided dolphins in September last year, it said in a statement. "Aspects of that catch ... read more