A beluga whale that authorities attempted to save from the River Seine died on Wednesday morning, despite a valiant bid to save its life. A team of two dozen experts winched the marine mammal out of the river in the early hours before loading it onto a refrigerated truck. The plan was for the beluga to be transported to a saltwater enclosure on the French coast around 99 miles away before eventually being towed out to sea, but the lost whale developed breathing difficulties and had to be euthanized during the transfer. “Despite an unprecedented rescue operation for the beluga, we are sad to announce the death of the cetacean,” the prefect of the Calvados department tweeted. The beluga was dangerously thin before the rescue operation began, and veterinary examinations of the animal after it was moved found it had no digestive activity, though the cause of its illness was unclear.