キタトックリクジラ、打ち上げられ死ぬ　仏北部

【サンガットＡＦＰ＝時事】フランス北部の海岸に７日、けがをした雌のキタトックリクジラが打ち上げられているのが発見されたが、数時間後に死んだ。当局者が明らかにした。（写真はフランス北部サンガットの浜辺に打ち上げられたキタトックリクジラ）
　打ち上げられたクジラの体重は３．５トン、体長は７．６メートル。満ち潮になれば海に戻れると期待されたが、戻る前に死んだ。
　ベルギーのリエージュ大学の海洋哺乳類専門家ティエリー・ジョニオー氏によると、キタトックリクジラは通常、北極圏の水深の深い海域に生息している。ここまで南下してくるのは珍しいという。
　哺乳類保護団体ＣＭＮＦのトップ、ジャッキー・カルプゾプロス氏はＡＦＰに対し、方向を見失い、海岸に打ち上げられたのではないかとの見方を示した。「４０年間この仕事をしているが、このような出来事は初めてだ」
　ジョニオー氏は、最近、ベルギーとオランダの海岸に同種のクジラが多数打ち上げられていると指摘。「海洋汚染か新たな疾病、もしくは海上交通量の増加」により、クジラの行動が変容した可能性があるとしている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/11/08-14:17）

A 7.6-metre (25-foot) whale died on a beach in northern France on Monday, hours after being discovered washed up and alive but wounded, authorities said.
Experts had hoped the rising tide would come in time to help the cetacean back on its way, but the animal died as it struggled to reach the water.
It probably drowned during its efforts, said Jacky Karpouzopoulos, head of CMNF, an association for the protection of wild mammals in northern France.
The appearance of this type of beaked whale, a northern bottlenose, this far south is rare.
These animals usually swim deep in Arctic waters, said Thierry Jauniaux, a sea mammal expert at Liege university in Belgium.
The female cetacean, weighing 3.5 tonnes, probably ended up on the beach because it was disorientated, Karpouzopoulos told AFP.
I've never seen anything like it in my 40 years on the job, he said.
Experts had ruled out lifting the animal back into the water, hoping that the tide would allow the animal to refloat and swim away, he said.
Jauniaux said a number of whales belonging to the same species have washed up recently on the coast of Belgium and the Netherlands.
This phenomenon could be due to pollution, the appearance of new illnesses or increased sea traffic leading to a change in the whales' behaviour, he said.
In February, a 9.5-metre female humpback whale was found dead on a northern French beach -- another extraordinary event, according to Karpouzopoulos.
In the spring of this year, an orca -- named Sedna by marine life protection group NGO Sea Shepherd -- was seen lost in the river Seine but died despite intense efforts to save it.
This summer, an ailing beluga whale that strayed into the Seine was put down by vets after a last-ditch rescue attempt failed because of its rapidly deteriorating health.