rescue operations for the whale stranded on Ploéven beach were unsuccessful

Seventeen days after the stranding of a first whale on the island of Sein and nine days after the discovery of a second on a beach in Tréguennec, a third whale – a fin whale – about fifteen meters s was stranded on Monday, September 19 on a beach in Ploéven, Finistère, reports France Bleu Breizh Izel. He would have failed “naturally”say the authorities.

A rescue operation was attempted, explains the mayor of the commune Didier Planté, but it had to be abandoned. “The whale is in a very shallow draft”he explains. “An SNSM boat arrived in the area and tried to pull the animal but the cables got into its flesh and made it suffer even more”he explains.

The animal is very weakened, in a “very pronounced state of weight loss and weakening”indicates the Finistère prefecture on Monday evening September 19, and now explains that “mechanical means” are mobilized for “dig an access to the sea” in an attempt to promote the immersion of the mammal during the next rising tide. Sea Shepherd volunteers are also helping the animal. Prefecture “Asks the population not to go to the site and not to obstruct the access roads in order to facilitate the progress of the operations”.

Fin whale strandings are relatively rare on the French coasts. In 2020, five individuals of this species were recorded on the Atlantic coast, according to a report by the Pélagis observatory, a specialist in marine mammals.