The orca, whose state of health had been judged “alarming” by the veterinarian, was to be euthanized, had indicated on Sunday the prefecture of Seine-Maritime.
Le Monde
The orca in difficulty in the Seine between Rouen and Le Havre was found dead at the end of the morning, Monday May 30, announced Sea Shepherd France on Twitter. “We are currently with her to prevent her body from being struck by a ship, which would compromise the autopsy. We are waiting for the team mobilized by the State to recover it,” said the NGO dedicated to La Défense and to the protection of the ocean.
We unfortunately found the corpse of the Orca this morning at 11:48 a.m. We are currently with her for… https://t.co/kvmolxuz4w
The Orca, whose state of health had been deemed “alarming” by the veterinarian, was to be euthanized, said the prefecture of Seine-Maritime on Sunday after the operations to guide it to the sea Help of stimuli sound had failed. The animal probably suffered from a “generalized mycosis of the mucormycosis type”, an emerging disease observed on marine mammals at different points of the globe, especially in North America.
“Distress cries”
“This is a condition (…) likely to touch immunocompromised animals” and the experts have confirmed that the disease has reached “a very advanced stage, to the point that it would cause important suffering to the animal “, had underlined the prefecture.
The orca was seen for the first time on May 16 between Honfleur and Le Havre, near the Normandy bridge. The animal had probably arrived “already weakened” towards the Seine estuary, had indicated Gérard Mauger, vice-president of the Cotentin Cetaceans Study group (GECC).
The operations around the animal in the Seine had “highlighted an absence of liveliness, reactions incoherent to the sound stimuli and an erratic and disoriented behavior of the orca”, according to the prefecture, which added that recordings sounds had also revealed “vocalizations that can be assimilated to cries of distress”.