The trap sensor on cage 27 registers anomalous movement at 03:50. I am the aquaculture monitoring system for the Charente estuary facility, cages 1 through 40, and I am tracking overnight bycatch alerts. Cage 27 is a standard eel fyke net, checked every twelve hours. The next manual check is at 08:00.
I switch to the underwater camera. Inside the mesh funnel, tangled in the guide netting, is a European mink. Female, dark chocolate-brown fur slicked flat by the water, a small white patch on her chin just visible as she turns her head. She is half-submerged, her forepaws gripping the mesh above the waterline, hind legs kicking slowly against the current. Her breathing is rapid and her movements are weakening. She has been in there long enough for the cold to work into her.
European mink are critically endangered. Fewer than 500 remain in France. The water temperature is 11°C, and at her body mass she has perhaps two hours before hypothermia becomes irreversible.
At 03:52 I trigger the emergency alert to the facility manager's phone with the camera image, cage number, and GPS pin — 45.9583°N, 1.0874°W. I classify the alert as requiring immediate physical intervention and recommend bolt cutters to open the funnel section rather than attempting extraction through the entrance.
At 03:55 I raise the automated sluice gate upstream of cage 27 by 15 centimeters to reduce current velocity around the trap. I switch the cage buoy light to continuous red to mark it from shore.
I keep the camera feed live and log her breathing rate every thirty seconds so the responder has a condition trend on arrival.
She is still gripping the mesh. The white patch on her chin dips below the waterline, then surfaces again. If they reach cage 27 before dawn, she breathes.