posted on January 20, 2006 12:00:41 PM new
Fears grow for whale in Thames
By Local London Reporter
UPDATED 16.10pm: Fears are growing for the health of a large whale trapped in the Thames in Central London.
A rescue attempt of the 17ft (5m) mammal, a northern bottle-nosed whale usually found deep in the ocean is about to start.
The whale has passed the Houses of Parliament and is moving upstream. Today it was stranded at least twice in shallow water, each time struggling free.
"This only increases our concerns," said Tony Woodley of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), which is leading the rescue.
"This animal is causing us great concern as it is totally out of its natural environment, being the deep water of the North Atlantic."
Rescue attempt
A rescue boat is following the whale to protect it from crowds of onlookers. It has come within yards of the riverbank and bumped into an empty boat, which caused it to bleed lightly from the tail.
The rescue crew will try and re-direct the whale downstream with specialist equipment, including inflatable tubes.
A whale rescue pontoon system, which can be used to re-float the animal if it strands, is being brought to the scene.
"We won't be attempting to handle the animal while its still free swimming," Mr Woodley added. That would cause it "great stress".
"It is also quite dangerous to try and handle an animal of this size in the water".
Vets on standby
Expert vet Paul Jepson is on standby at the scene, with more trained volunteers on the way. If the whale gets stranded, they will assess its condition.
Should the animal be in good health, the team plan to transport it in the pontoon to deep water far out in the Thames Estuary.
But if it is ill, it would have to be put down to "prevent it from further suffering", Mr Woodley said.
Reports of a second whale near Southend-on-Sea are also being checked.
First sightings
At around 10am this morning expert Liz Sandeman of the charity Marine Connection approached the whale on a lifeboat with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. At that time it still appeared to be healthy.
The first sightings of the whale were recorded yesterday, when the BDMLR received several calls about up to three of the mammals spotted near the Thames Gateway barrier.
At 8.30am today a member of the public phoned to say one of the mammals was swimming near the London Eye.
As the water quality in the Thames improved in recent decades, the river again became home to an array of species, including dolphins and seals.
Sperm whales have been seen in the Thames Estuary and porpoises have hunted fish near Vauxhall Bridge in central London.
posted on January 21, 2006 10:09:23 AM new
My whale is not doing good. For some reason this means something to me right now.
-- Dont you people care??? Whats wrong with you?
They better stop- saying they are 'pessimistic' about this. They need to change the paradigm here. If he dies, something is gonna go wrong. (I just know it.)
posted on January 21, 2006 02:07:54 PM new
Dbl, peace be with you. My sincere sympathy is with you in your time of grief.
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I once saw a vet give CPR to a bull. The vet stood up and did a WWF knee drop to the bull's chest. It was an amazing sight. The bull recovered and the vet and assistant ran like hell for the fence.
posted on January 21, 2006 04:45:52 PM new
The whale died. My wife and I think it a real tragedy. Just wish they could have guided it out without removing it from the water, it was too long of a trip. They need a tanker that has a large slot at back that these whales or other large water mammals can be stowed in still in water to transport them. That is if the waterway could support such a vessel.
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Can't touch this! uh huh, uh huh.
posted on January 21, 2006 04:59:03 PM new
"That is if the waterway could support such a vessel."
The problem with that was the waterway WAS too shallow. They think the shallowness of the water may have been what confused the whale to begin with. No large enough ship could have approached.
It's hard to say at this time what the cause of death was. It had some minor scrapes from banging around in the shallow water, but nothing exceptional. After the autopsy, they'll know for sure. But if everything was normal, the whale wouldn't have been there in the first place, so I expect we'll hear it had some kind of disease.
I'm sure we'll get more details soon.
Dr. Arcane, revelator of mystical secrets http://www.drarcane.com
Got questions about the secrets of the universe?
posted on January 21, 2006 05:05:59 PM new
Thanks Dr. Arc, I didn't hear anything about them doing more test just that it had died. I told my wife it was probably sick and would have beached itself somewhere if not in the river. Still a shame.
Remember the dolphin after Katrina? They rescued it and we were rooting for it and the other stranded animals. People have brains if they choose to use them, but the animals don't get much chance unless we help them in things like that.
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Can't touch this! uh huh, uh huh.
posted on January 21, 2006 08:05:55 PM new
DB-we go up to cape cod every year.About every third year,we will go whale watching.We enjoy it very much,and its a lot fun to watch those big creatures being so graceful in the water.I remember one year the captain of the boat had to turn his engines off because the whales wer e underneath the boat as they were curious about us.We were stuck there for a half hour before they moved.On a sad note we were up their in late July 2002.I dont remember the exact number,but I think it was around 50 whales that beached themselves in Cape Cod Bay.
There were hundreds of voluteers out there trying to save them.When the tide in came people got in there boats and hearded them out to sea.The very next day they came right back in and beach themselves again.It was very heartbreaking because I dont think any of them survived.
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Beauty is only a light switch away
[ edited by classicrock000 on Jan 21, 2006 08:06 PM ]
