Marine animals seem to like the Seine.
After an orca and a beluga, it was a seal that was seen in the river, according to a press release from Voies navigables de France.
It was a passerby who reported it on Tuesday evening on the downstream side of Poses-Amfreville (Eure).
Informed, the police intervened and provided their information to the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB).
Bingo: the passerby was right, it is a harbor seal, quite young, according to information from France 3 Normandy.
Everything is done by the river brigade of Rouen to find the animal.
The Navigable Waterways of France have issued a notice to skippers and invite caution, especially for maritime transport but also passers-by.
In any case, this is not a first: “A colony of seals has been established for several years on the Seine estuary.
This rise, although rare, has therefore already happened in the past, ”explains the prefecture of Eure.
The French Office for Biodiversity specifies that the animal should find the estuary on its own.
The beluga, rescued then euthanized
At the beginning of August, the story of the beluga stuck in a lock held many French people in suspense.
Lost for ten days in the Seine, he had initially been saved.
It had taken no less than six hours to get him out of the lock where he was, after an unexplained journey of 160 km from the mouth of the river.
The 24 divers and rescuers mobilized had great difficulty in luring him into the nets intended to extract him from the water.
Read alsoDeath of the beluga during the rescue attempt: the story of the last hours of the cetacean
The next day, during his transfer from a lock on the Eure to the port of Ouistreham, the 800-kilo cetacean had to be euthanized “The veterinarians noted a deterioration in his condition and his respiratory activities (…).
The animal was in anoxia (
a decrease in the quantity of oxygen
) and was not ventilating sufficiently.
The suffering being obvious for the animal, we decided that it was not appropriate to release it and that it was necessary to proceed with its euthanasia, "said Florence Ollivet-Courtois, one of the veterinarians who supervised the 'operation.
