Rare sighting: Beluga Whale strays into France’s River Seine

On 2 August 2022, a Beluga Whale strayed into France‘s River Seine in the northwest of the country, where the river meets the sea at the English Channel.

This is a rare sighting. It is only the second recorded sighting of a Beluga Whale in a French river since 1948 when a fisherman in the estuary of the Loire river found one in his nets.

It is easily recognizable by its pale skin and bulbous forehead. An adult Beluga Whale can grow to 4 metres (13 feet) in length.

By 6 August, it had travelled about 70 kilometres (44 miles) north of Paris.

The L’Eure region prefecture in Normandy say that the Beluga Whale normally lives in arctic and sub-arctic waters, and sometimes it strays into more southern waters. They say it can temporarily survive in freshwater.

Authorities, who are tracking the whale by drone, boat and sonar, are urging people not to approach it so as not to stress it, but are concerned about its health. It appears under-weight, and the authorities fear the cetacean could starve if it stays in the river Seine that flows south to Paris and beyond.

The marine conservation group, Sea Shepherd France, is monitoring the whale to determine whether to help guide it back towards its natural ocean habitat or wait until it is in better health. They may give it vitamins because it is currently refusing food or is having trouble eating, a senior police official told a press conference. Rescuers have tried feeding it frozen herring and live trout.

Photographs: Jean-Francois Monier, AFP, 6 August 2022

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, foreign aid audits and evaluations, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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