The Sea Shepherd association found the body of the killer whale in the Seine on Monday. The animal was sick, the Seine-Maritime prefecture announced on Sunday that it was going to be euthanized.
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The killer whale that was stranded in the Seine estuary was found dead on Monday May 30. The Sea Shepherd association announces that it has located his body “at 11:48”. “We are currently with her to prevent her body from being hit by a ship, which would compromise the autopsy, explains Sea Shepherd on its Twitter account, photo in support. We are waiting for the team mobilized by the State to recover it.”
The Seine-Maritime prefecture has confirmed the death of the killer whale. The body will be towed for an autopsy, aimed at “gather as much information as possible and try to establish the causes of the wandering and death of this killer whale”, specifies the prefecture, which explains that it is the report of a sailor relayed by the captaincy of the port of Rouen which allowed the boats of Sea Shepherd France to locate the animal on the surface, then to note its death.
Unfortunately, we found the body of the orca this morning at 11:48. We are currently with her to prevent her body from being hit by a ship, which would compromise the autopsy. We are waiting for the team mobilized by the State to recover it. pic.twitter.com/kHunMaxGyt
— Sea Shepherd France (@SeaShepherdFran) May 30, 2022
Sunday evening, the Seine-Maritime prefecture announced that the orca who had been lost for several days would have to be euthanized. A decision made for “put an end to the suffering suffered by the orca”, observations showing that she suffered from, among other things, “necrotic lesions” and of “mucormycosis”. The Sea Shepherd association regretted this decision to euthanize the orca, and had launched on Sunday evening a “race against time” to try to save her, without success.
The orca was first sighted on May 16 between Honfleur and Le Havre, near the Pont de Normandie. She was “very likely arrival already weakened towards the Seine estuary”, according to Gérard Mauger, vice-president of the Cotentin Cetacean Study Group (GECC), an association based in Cherbourg commissioned by the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) for the study and preservation of marine mammals in the Channel.