The beluga seen in the Seine should stay at the gates of the Paris region

by time news

The beluga seen on Tuesday August 2 going up the Seine at Vernon (Eure) should not reach Paris. In any case, this is the point of view of the authorities who have been tracking the cetacean for four days. This Friday, five boats were still in the area, between the locks of Amfreville and Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne (Eure) to try to confuse him. Never had such a marine animal found itself in the river, let alone 160 kilometers from the mouth, and a few kilometers from the Yvelines.

The Eure prefecture has committed major resources, alongside the Waterways of France (VNF), the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB), the Cotentin Cetacean Study Group (GEEC) and the Pelagis laboratory . The Sea Shepherd association (specialized in the protection of marine species in particular) also dispatched a boat equipped with drones to help this beluga find its way.

The departmental fire and rescue service and the sector’s river gendarmerie brigade are present with their nautical resources, including firefighters and divers. “We monitor the area of ​​forty kilometers of river between the locks of Amfreville and Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne, we specify on the side of the prefecture of Eure. Because river traffic is not interrupted, it can slip behind a boat, as was the case in Amfreville three days ago. »

No alert activated on the Île-de-France side

Photos and videos show that the marine animal is in a “worrying because it is thinner” state of health, but all attempts to approach have so far proved unsuccessful. The beluga is capable of carrying out long apneas and therefore of moving over considerable distances. The Sea Shepherd association announced in a tweet that it is “necessary to help him feed and go back to the sea”.

He was seen, for the last time, this Friday near Andelys (Eure). Or about thirty kilometers from Yvelines and therefore from Île-de-France, and about sixty to the northwest of Paris. The authorities appeal for caution and ask “the entire population not to attempt to approach or come into contact with the animal to facilitate the work of all State services, mobilized for the preservation of wildlife.

The firefighters’ drone unit obtained the first images of the cetacean, before the deployment of boats near the animal.

For its part, the prefecture of Yvelines specifies that it has not activated an alert at its level. The chances are almost nil, in fact, that the beluga will arrive at the gates of Paris.

This episode is reminiscent of that of the killer whale that ran aground in the Seine last May. The mammal, which had found itself in difficulty between Rouen and Le Havre (Seine-Maritime), had died of “starvation”, a state of weakness caused by the fact that it had stopped eating.

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