(Contrecœur) A whale carcass was seen and photographed Thursday morning around 10 a.m. in the St. Lawrence River, near Contrecœur, in Montérégie, but it drifted with the current and could not be found later.
Updated yesterday at 6:23 p.m.
It is obviously a minke whale, “probably” one of the two cetaceans that got lost in Montreal a few weeks ago, according to Robert Michaud, president of the Groupe de recherche et d’éducation sur marine mammals (GREMM).
Two minke whales had indeed been seen at the beginning of the month in the St. Lawrence River near Montreal.
Fears for their survival had been raised, since they were far from their usual habitat.
Hard to find
“There is no doubt that a minke whale was there, but it may be floating between two waters, it just depends on its level of decomposition,” said Mr. Michaud to explain the fact that he could not be traced. The Canadian Press went along the river to Sorel without finding any trace of it either.
“It could be inconspicuous, snagged somewhere in a buoy or something. At some point, the current will unhook it and we will see it again,” said the president of GREMM, adding that the search would be ended and time would do its work to bring it back to the surface and that it fails.
Depending on the whale’s degradation conditions, “we could do a necropsy,” said Mr. Michaud, specifying that this task would fall to veterinary medicine students from the University of Montreal.
An extraordinary fishing story
It was an assiduous fisherman from Contrecœur, Ronald Gosselin, who saw the carcass of the marine mammal: “I saw it near the port in Contrecœur around 10 a.m. this morning. I was in my boat and I was going up with my “buddies” to do another walleye fishing trip and offshore I saw something – the guys had played a joke this morning that we might find the whales – and there was a weird shape. We went to see and that was it, ”he said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“She was floating. We were in 50 feet of water. She floated between the green and red buoys and drifted with the current. The current is quite “powerful at this height of the St. Lawrence River,” he pointed out.
Mr. Gosselin, who says he makes some 80 fishing trips every year, took photos that he shared on social networks, but it was not his first encounter with cetaceans: “In my life I have saw two or three whales, one of which was beached at Contrecœur. They had taken it out and it didn’t smell good. I saw several dead seals. I also saw live ones that ate my walleye,” he laughed.
“Of course I’m going to have my pipe fired and I’m going to hear about it,” concluded the sixty-year-old, convinced that this unusual fishing story will follow him for a long time.