The dolphin-like whale was first spotted off the coast of Athens on Thursday.
Athens, Greece:
A sick baby whale found near the shores of Athens in a rare sighting has returned to deeper waters after being given medication, Greek officials said on Saturday.
Deputy Environment Minister Georgios Amyras told Cuvier state ERT television that the male Cuvier whale is currently swimming near Salamis Island in the south, Deputy Environment Minister Georgios Amyras told state ERT television, at the same time, adding that its status remains very precarious.
The dolphin-like whale, which normally lives in waters more than 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) deep, was first spotted near the coast of Athens on Thursday.
On Friday, wildlife experts and lifeguards were called in after it reached the shallows of a popular beach in the Athens suburb of Palio Faliro.
Amyras said the whale was hydrated and given antibiotics and after a few hours it was escorted out to the open sea late Friday.
“This is a deep-sea animal… the longer it stays in shallow water, the more its health suffers,” he said.
Cuvier’s beaked whale can dive up to 4,000 meters deep and often grow up to seven meters (23 feet) in length.
Natascha Komninou, a professor at the University of Thessaloniki and head of the Arion whale rescue center, told Skai TV that the whale had severe injuries to its lower jaw and blood tests showed it was anemic.
“With such severe trauma, things are difficult,” she said.
Cuvier beaked whales often fall prey to ship propellers, but they are also very sensitive to “noise pollution” from human activity, Komninou added.
Alexandros Frantzis, a marine biologist at the nonprofit Pelagos Institute, this week said the whale may have been disoriented due to seismic research constantly looking for hydrocarbons in the Gulf of Kyparissia in western Greece, one of the main habitats of mammals.
“It’s one of the four most important habitats in the world for these animals.”
“We’re demolishing their house… for the hydrocarbons,” Frantzis told ERT.
While sightings of live whales are extremely unusual in Athens, whale carcasses occasionally drift, mainly on the Greek islands.
A dead Cuvier’s beaked whale was discovered on a small island near Crete in 2016, and another was found on Naxos the following year.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
