The beluga was spotted in the French waterway on Wednesday after drifting thousands of miles from its home in the Arctic. A drone was used to track the whale as it swam through a section of the river between Paris and the city of Rouen in Normandy. But the animal was said to have “barely moved” on Thursday and on Friday was seen swimming a 25-mile stretch between two sets of locks north-west of the capital. The beluga snubbed a catch of herring offered by conservation group Sea Shepherd France on Friday – sparking concerns that it is slowly starving to death. They tweeted: “At this time, the beluga is not interested in the fish being offered. We remain optimistic that he will agree to feed.” In the early hours of Saturday morning an update said: “Our teams took turns with the beluga throughout the night. He always ignores the fish offered to him. Image: Pic: Twitter/Prefect of Eure Image: Pic: Sea Shepherd/AP “We will take stock of the situation with government agencies within the day.” An earlier tweet said: “Beluga in the Seine: we are with him at the moment, the animal is extremely thin. The absolute urgency is to try to feed him, which we will do today. The success of the operation will depend on the reaction.” The animal did not respond to efforts to guide it back to safer waters and exhibited “escape behavior toward the boats,” officials said. Volunteers trying to help are being as discreet as possible in an effort to “avoid stress that could worsen his health condition,” a statement said. The beluga swam away from boats trying to guide it to the river’s mouth, between the seaports of Le Havre and Honfleur on Friday. Image: French fire brigade in rubber boats monitor the beluga whale. Photo: AP Removing it from the water could put it in danger, said Sea Shepherd France president Lamya Essemlali. But the whale is “doomed to die if it stays in the Seine”, Ms Essemlali warned on Friday. Beluga whales are recognizable by their pale skin and bulbous forehead. They are social animals that usually live, hunt and migrate together in pods.
