The protected species, normally found in cold Arctic waters, had made its way up the waterway and reached a lock about 70 kilometers (44 miles) from Paris. The whale was spotted for the first time on Tuesday in the English Channel river that flows through the French capital, following the rare sighting of a killer whale in the Seine two months ago. French rescue services, firefighters and biodiversity officials were quickly mobilized and closely monitored the whale throughout the day to assess the mammal’s “alarming” health, the local prefecture said on Thursday. She appeared to have “skin changes and be underweight”. The whale is “currently between the Poses dam and Saint-Pierre-la-Garren,” about 70 kilometers northwest of Paris, it said. Gerard Mauger, deputy head of the French Marine Mammal Research Group said the mammal spent “very little time at the surface” and appeared to have “good” lung capacity. But he said rescuers were struggling to get the whale to the Seine estuary. Officials did not specify the size, but an adult beluga can reach four meters (13 feet) in length. A firefighter monitors the beluga whale’s movements from a drone flying above it. Photo: Pascal Rossignol/Reuters Authorities in the Eure department of Normandy urged people to keep their distance to avoid disturbing the animal. Lamya Essemlali, head of the non-profit marine conservation organization Sea Shepherd, said some of her team would arrive by drone at night to help locate the whale more easily. “The environment is not very hospitable for the beluga, the Seine is very polluted and cetaceans are extremely sensitive to noise,” he said, adding that the Seine was “very noisy”. In late May, the killer whale – also known as an orca, but technically a member of the dolphin family – was found dead in the Seine between Le Havre and Rouen. The animal had been stranded in the river and was unable to return to the ocean despite efforts by officials to guide it. “The urgency is to feed the whale so it doesn’t suffer the same fate as the orca that died after it starved to death,” Esemlali said. The county said it will assist and monitor Sea Shepherd’s efforts. Eure authorities said lone belugas sometimes swam further south than usual and could temporarily survive in fresh water. They migrated away from the Arctic in the fall to feed as ice formed, but rarely ventured this far south.