French authorities plan to give vitamins to malnourished beluga whale in the Seine
French authorities were planning on Saturday to give vitamins to a beluga whale that swam way up the Seine river, as they raced to save the malnourished cetacean refusing food.
The apparently underweight whale was first spotted Tuesday in the river that flows through Paris to the English Channel. On Saturday it had made its way to around 70 kilometres (44 miles) north of the French capital.
“It’s quite emaciated and seems to be having trouble eating,” Isabelle Dorliat-Pouzet, a senior police official in the Eure department in Normandy, which is overseeing the rescue operation, told a press conference.
Rescuers had tried feeding it frozen herring and then live trout, but it didn’t seem to accept either, she said. It is hoped that injecting the animal with vitamins will stimulate its appetite, she said.
Authorities were deciding whether to keep the animal in the waterway so it could regain its appetite or guide it back toward the sea, she said, adding that no decision has yet been taken.
