The stranding of a beluga whale in the Seine made the French authorities frantically trying to save it. The latest attempt is to give the giant animal a vitamin injection.
Rescue teams hope the vitamins will restore the whale's appetite and energy to swim back into the open ocean. The reason is that the whale is indicated to be currently malnourished and has difficulty eating.
As quoted by us from the BBC, the whale was first detected in the River Seine, about 77 kilometers north of the capital Paris. Attempts to help him return to the ocean have been unsuccessful and scientists are concerned about his health.
The rescue team had given the fish but the 4 meter long whale did not want to eat it. "The whale was a bit emaciated and had feeding problems," said one of the rescue workers.
With the vitamin injection, the whale is expected to eat again as energy to swim about 160 kilometers and return to its natural habitat in the Arctic. There is an option to tow it directly into the ocean, but it is feared that its strength is not sufficient enough to return to the ocean so the risk is high.
The whale seemed uninspired, only occasionally coming to the surface and rarely making a sound like most of its species so that it might be in trouble for its health. Experts are still confused about how it ended up there, when its natural habitat is far away in the Arctic.
Indeed, beluga whales sometimes move to find food when ice in the area they live in begins to form. However, it is rare for them to swim very far from home, in this case to France.