A beluga whale that strayed into the River Seine and began swimming in the direction of Paris has died during an ambitious rescue effort intended to help it back to its traditional cold Arctic waters, reports The Guardian.
The four-metre animal was euthanised by vets after it developed breathing difficulties while being transferred by road to the Normandy coast. Hours earlier, it had been lifted out of the freshwater of the Seine, where it could not survive.
“Despite an unprecedented rescue operation for the beluga, we are sad to announce the death of the cetacean,” the prefect of the Calvados department tweeted.
“During the journey, the veterinarians confirmed a worsening of its state, notably its respiratory activities, and at the same time noticed the animal was in pain, not breathing enough,” Florence Ollivet Courtois, a French wild animal expert, told Associated Press.
“The suffering was obvious for the animal, so it was important to release its tension, and so we had to proceed to euthanise it.”
Courtois said the whale experienced distress after it was moved to a refrigerated truck and during the approximately 99-mile (160km) drive to the Normandy coast.