A first rescue operation will be carried out on Saturday to attract the cetacean towards the mouth of the river with sounds of its congeners. According to the prefecture, this solution remains the least stressful for the very weakened animal.
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An orca in perdition in the Seine, the scene is at the least atypical. Spotted for the first time on May 16 near the Normandy bridge, it is now in great difficulty between Le Havre and Rouen. Presumably sick or injured, his vital prognosis is engaged. “She is very weakened and ammaigry. Her body is covered with mycoses. But for a few days, her condition remains stable,” says Sophie Poncet, specialist in marine mammals for the French Biodiversity Office (OFB).
To help the animal and attract it to sea, the Seine-Maritime prefecture sets up a rescue operation, scheduled for Saturday May 27 in the morning. “The decision was made to favor a soft intervention method, aimed at ensuring a remote monitoring of the animal by using a drone, coordinated with an intervention aimed at ensuring the dissemination of sound stimuli (sounds issued by a population of orcas) “, she said in a press release. “We hope that it will send him positive signals to descend the Seine,” abounds Sophie Poncet. Experience is a first in France, but has already been successful on a group of orcas in Norway. 2>
protection perimeter
On Wednesday, measures have already been taken to monitor the Orca, a species also protected. A protection perimeter has been established, with a navigation notice and a ban on approaching the animal within a hundred meters for individuals. Surveillance operations are also organized in collaboration with OFB and the Cotentin Cetaceans Study Group (GECC).
No one knows if the operation will be successful. “In Norway, the experience had been carried out on a group, less far from the sea, and on animals a priori healthy. So that really complicates manipulation and nothing suggests of its result,” says Sophie Poncet. With particular intelligence, the orca in difficulty could also understand the subterfuge and not be attracted to the sound signals.
“It is quite complex to intervene because the orca is a large animal and the seine a particular space, continues Sophie Poncet. The intervention must be as gentle as possible to avoid stressing the animal. “The cetacean, probably a male, measures between four and five meters and would weigh more than a ton. The prefecture recalls that it is a “wild animal” with gregarious instinct, which could “represent a risk for people”.
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