the essential
Since Tuesday June 25, three dolphins have settled in the Old Port of La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime) to the great delight of onlookers.
Rare spectacle in La Rochelle: since last Tuesday, three dolphins have taken up residence in the Old Port, attracting many passers-by who come to observe them, reports France Blue La Rochelle.
The three cetaceans, probably coming to hunt the mule, entered the trawlers’ basin on Tuesday evening, at the time of the rising tide. A lock keeper first gently guided them towards the port channel, before they returned to the coast.
The phenomenon, although remarkable for onlookers, is increasingly common in La Rochelle. “There has clearly been a change in the distribution of animals, they are now closer to the coast and therefore go where there is food, particularly in ports”, explains to our colleagues Cécile Dars, in charge of strandings at Pélagis, the marine mammal center of La Rochelle which monitors the three dolphins.
Nets planned to scare them away
Their arrival seriously disrupted the operation of the port. The Marine Mammals and Birds Observatory is therefore studying the most suitable means of returning them to the open sea. But it is important to be careful, “they are cardiac animals”, insists Cécile Dars to France Blue.
Several solutions are being considered: the first would be to “make nets to repel them acoustically, but without coming into contact with them,” explains the expert. A second would consist of “laying pipes in the bottom of the port to make a curtain of bubbles.”
But the dolphins being rather peaceful for the moment, “there is no emergency”, reassures Cécile Dars, who hopes that they will leave on their own.
