“Beluga rescue” mission. Three caretakers from the Marinelande park from Antibes (Alpes-Maritimes) arrived as reinforcements in Normandy, this Monday, August 8, 2022. Spotted a week before, the four-meter cetacean is in bad shape, lost in a lock on the Seine.
“We are happy to get close to him“, rejoices Isabelle Brasseur, responsible for “education, research and conservation” in the largest marine zoo in Europe. The option favored by the authorities is for the moment to extract the animal from the Seine.
Stretcher and expertise
It’s here specialty of the Antibes team. In their luggage, the three rescuers took a stretcher and a large cloth, used to transport the animal: “Since marineland existexplains Isabelle Brasseur, we have become experts in moving animals.”
One of the only French veterinarians specializing in marine mammals is also part of the journey. “He has a big role to play.”, insists the expert. He will thus be able to bring his expertise to study the behavior of the beluga.
According to the NGO Sea Shepherd, already on the spot, the animal is this Monday in “a stationary state“.