Whale sighted in Thames

[Yuley]

Anyone seen it yet?

Link to BBC as follows :-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4631396.stm

[Shaggy]

Only on TV.

I hope an exclusion zone place round the animal as soon as possible to protect it from over enthusiastic boat owners.

It’s clearly in distress and doesn’t need a load of boats chasing after it.

Shaggy

[timw]

It's being protected by RNLI Ribs and the PLA

[timw]

I hope we're not going to get any irritating people start a "Name the Thames Whale" thread. It went past my window and I saw it get caught up amongst some moored barges. It's distressed and unlikely to survive sadly.

[OceanEco]

"He said if attempts to re-direct the whale downstream failed, it might be necessary to put it down to prevent from suffering further."

We might have to put it down!!!! There must be other alternatives. Whales have been moved on vessels over hundreds of miles here.

http://www.reuniteluna.com/springer.php

[CJL]

We will be visiting it tomorrow as part of our normal journey downstream.

No worries about bothering the animal as we will keep our distance. Fingers crossed we see it. We will take lots of photos and post later.

Chris

[codprawn]

It's heartbreaking but they should leave the poor thing well alone - even when they do rescue whales they usually end up dead somewhere else - maybe it doesn't WANT to be rescued???

On the other hand has nobody ever watched Dr Who and the Loch Ness monster or read the book???

Could be an alien or Osama Bin Laden at the controls - never mind Jonah maybe it's swallowed a NUKE!!!!

[Tideway]

It doesn't look good.

The various RNLI ,police, fire and Hrbmaster boats have been out all day monitoring it and warning off other river traffic. They have got a vet and British Divers Marine Life Rescue trained personnel on board, so they are doing all they can. See http://www.bdmlr.org.uk/pages/main.html for more details.

There isn't much that can happen until the poor bugger beaches or ceases free swimming. They have a inflatable rig that can support it an allow them to move it through the water, but it is a long way back down river before there is anywhere they can release it.

BDMLR have their own rescue RIBS, so I'd expect them to arrive soon, if not there already. They'll stay with it until they can safely make an intervention, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is a sad outcome.

If it doesn't make it the there will be an autopsy, so we'll know whether it was ill, parasitised or healthy. See: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/l...gs//index.html

Fingers crossed that this doesn't happen though. It has been very heartening to see how londoners engage with animals once they know they are there (I admit a 20ft whale does grab attention!). Hope it keeps wildlife in, on and around the Thames on the agenda for a while.

t

[moresauce]

I can't really say too much about where it came from but I have about 7 tonnes of fresh whale sushi to get rid of.....slight taste of pollution and some scarring to one side.

The new cockney dish will be jellied whale so come on grab yourself a bargain email me at igotdrunkandboughtabigdeadwhale@7tonnesofsushi.co. uk

[Nos4r2]

Originally Posted by Tideway

It has been very heartening to see how londoners engage with animals once they know they are there

I bet half of them thought it was where their milk came from