Wheluga whale stranded in Seine River removed

The beluga whale stranded in the Seine River in northern France has been removed from the water early on Wednesday in the first stage of an ambitious rescue operation.

After nearly six hours of work, the 800 - kilogram 1,800 pound cetacean was lifted by a net and crane from the river at around 4 am 0200 GMT and placed on a barge under the immediate care of a dozen veterinarians.

The beluga, a protected species usually found in cold Arctic waters, will be transported to the coast by Isabelle Dorliat-Pouzet, secretary general of the Eure prefecture, ahead of the rescue operation.

The four-metre 13-foot whale was spotted more than a week ago heading towards Paris and was stranded 130 km 80 miles inland from the channel at Saint-Pierre- La-Garenne in Normandy.

Since Friday the animal's movement to the inland has been blocked by a lock at Saint-Pierre-La-Garenne, 70 km northwest of Paris, and its health had deteriorated after it refused to eat.

But its condition was satisfactory, Isabelle Brasseur of the Marineland sea animal park in southern France, Europe's biggest, told AFP earlier on Tuesday.

A seawater basin at a lock in the channel port of Ouistreham has been prepared for the animal, which will spend three days there under observation in preparation for its release.

Brasseur, part of a Marineland team sent to assist with the rescue, said that the exceptional operation to return it to the sea is not without risk for the whale, which is already weakened and stressed.

She said he could be dead now, during the handling, during the journey or at point B, in Ouistreham.

The 24 divers involved in the operation and the rescuers handling the ropes had to try several times between 10 pm and 4 am to lure the animal into the nets to be lifted out of the water.

A handful of curious people remained on the bank all night to observe the operation.