Raph's Girl
01-21-2006, 07:03 PM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060120/sc_nm/britain_whale_dc
A small whale swam up the River Thames to central London on Friday, a rare event which drew large crowds of sightseers and brought traffic to a standstill.
But as the whale twice tried to ground itself before eventually finding slightly deeper water as the tide came in, concerns grew that it might not survive.
As the Northern Bottle-nosed Whale beached next to Chelsea Bridge, three men waded into the river hitting the water and then punching the air in celebration as it swam off.
But it soon beached again, prompting more people to jump into the water to move it on.
"I am very concerned for the safety of this animal at the moment, particularly if boat traffic increases in the river," said Laila Sadler, scientific officer at animal protection charity, the RSPCA.
"It is already clearly disorientated," she told Reuters.
She said the whale would be encouraged to swim back downriver toward the sea and that experts were working on contingency plans to rescue it if it beached again.
"We are extremely worried. At 11:30 tonight (2330 GMT) we will have a very, very low tide," she said.
Members of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue group were on hand to help mount a rescue if necessary. They appealed for people not to crowd the animal.
Police and media boats tracked the whale as it cautiously circled, and television cameras carried the images live.
Witnesses said it was between 5 and 8 meters (yards) in length and some said that blood was visible in the water.
Media reports spoke of a second whale in the river's estuary at Southend in southeastern England.
Experts were divided on what the world's deepest-diving whale -- a sociable animal that normally travels in groups -- was doing on its own and in such shallow waters.
"It can dive to 3,000 meters and stay submerged for an hour," said Peter Evans of the Sea Watch Foundation, a charity dedicated to whale conservation around Britain.
"It will only come into such shallow waters if it is ill," he added. "But in doing so it is committing suicide."
He said it was possible the whale, native to the northern North Atlantic, had been following fish upstream and had become disorientated.
"Sightings of things like porpoises in the estuary have become more frequent in the past five years -- indicating that fish have become more abundant which in turn shows how much cleaner the river is than it used to be," he told Reuters.
Natural History Museum expert Richard Sabin told Reuters the museum had been recording strandings since 1913 and that this was the first record of this species for the Thames.
A survey by the Zoological Society of London from July 2004 to June 2005 found a total of 103 sightings of 197 animals in the Thames and its estuary -- mostly of seals but also Harbour Porpoises and Dolphins
Welp... the Whale died. :(
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060121/sc_nm/britain_whale_dc
The northern bottle-nosed whale that made world headlines when it strayed into the River Thames in central London two days ago has died as rescuers were trying to rush it to safety aboard a barge.
The news follows a sharp decline in the health of the adolescent 18-foot whale after initial optimism that it could be returned to freedom.
"I am afraid it had a convulsion and died at 1900 hours," Tony Woodley of British Divers Marine Life Rescue told Reuters by telephone.
The whale captured the hearts of the nation with live television coverage of every twist and turn in the saga, and huge crowds lining the river banks burst into applause as the rescue got under way on Saturday.
It was first time since records began in 1913 that a whale had been seen so far upstream.
As the barge sped toward open waters 40 miles downstream, volunteers poured water onto the whale to keep its skin damp.
But time was always going to be crucial because the whale's body is not designed to bear its own weight and it could begin to suffocate if kept out of the water too long.
The whale, one of the world's deepest diving mammals that usually travels in groups, triggered international interest when it was first spotted near the Houses of Parliament.
Experts speculated that it was so far from its natural environment because it was either very ill, had got lost chasing food or had been driven from its usual habitat by military testing or loud sonar.
Another northern bottle-nosed whale was seen on Friday in the Thames estuary, and on Saturday the body of a dead harbor porpoise was found upstream at Putney.
Whale expert Peter Evans of the Sea Watch Foundation praised the rescue operation that involved partially beaching the whale, moving it onto an inflatable pontoon and floating it down to the waiting barge.
But he had questioned the wisdom of releasing it into the shallow waters and busy traffic lanes of the Thames estuary.
"There is a real danger that, if it is well enough to release, letting it go again in the estuary will simply mean it will beach itself again," he told Reuters.
Attempts were made during the night to encourage the whale to swim back downriver.
At one stage it was spotted as far downstream as Greenwich, but it returned upstream to what appeared to be its preferred spot between Chelsea and Albert Bridges.
Although it was the first time a whale had been spotted so far up the river, sightings of seals and dolphins have risen steadily further downstream over the past five years as the water quality has improved.
A small whale swam up the River Thames to central London on Friday, a rare event which drew large crowds of sightseers and brought traffic to a standstill.
But as the whale twice tried to ground itself before eventually finding slightly deeper water as the tide came in, concerns grew that it might not survive.
As the Northern Bottle-nosed Whale beached next to Chelsea Bridge, three men waded into the river hitting the water and then punching the air in celebration as it swam off.
But it soon beached again, prompting more people to jump into the water to move it on.
"I am very concerned for the safety of this animal at the moment, particularly if boat traffic increases in the river," said Laila Sadler, scientific officer at animal protection charity, the RSPCA.
"It is already clearly disorientated," she told Reuters.
She said the whale would be encouraged to swim back downriver toward the sea and that experts were working on contingency plans to rescue it if it beached again.
"We are extremely worried. At 11:30 tonight (2330 GMT) we will have a very, very low tide," she said.
Members of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue group were on hand to help mount a rescue if necessary. They appealed for people not to crowd the animal.
Police and media boats tracked the whale as it cautiously circled, and television cameras carried the images live.
Witnesses said it was between 5 and 8 meters (yards) in length and some said that blood was visible in the water.
Media reports spoke of a second whale in the river's estuary at Southend in southeastern England.
Experts were divided on what the world's deepest-diving whale -- a sociable animal that normally travels in groups -- was doing on its own and in such shallow waters.
"It can dive to 3,000 meters and stay submerged for an hour," said Peter Evans of the Sea Watch Foundation, a charity dedicated to whale conservation around Britain.
"It will only come into such shallow waters if it is ill," he added. "But in doing so it is committing suicide."
He said it was possible the whale, native to the northern North Atlantic, had been following fish upstream and had become disorientated.
"Sightings of things like porpoises in the estuary have become more frequent in the past five years -- indicating that fish have become more abundant which in turn shows how much cleaner the river is than it used to be," he told Reuters.
Natural History Museum expert Richard Sabin told Reuters the museum had been recording strandings since 1913 and that this was the first record of this species for the Thames.
A survey by the Zoological Society of London from July 2004 to June 2005 found a total of 103 sightings of 197 animals in the Thames and its estuary -- mostly of seals but also Harbour Porpoises and Dolphins
Welp... the Whale died. :(
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060121/sc_nm/britain_whale_dc
The northern bottle-nosed whale that made world headlines when it strayed into the River Thames in central London two days ago has died as rescuers were trying to rush it to safety aboard a barge.
The news follows a sharp decline in the health of the adolescent 18-foot whale after initial optimism that it could be returned to freedom.
"I am afraid it had a convulsion and died at 1900 hours," Tony Woodley of British Divers Marine Life Rescue told Reuters by telephone.
The whale captured the hearts of the nation with live television coverage of every twist and turn in the saga, and huge crowds lining the river banks burst into applause as the rescue got under way on Saturday.
It was first time since records began in 1913 that a whale had been seen so far upstream.
As the barge sped toward open waters 40 miles downstream, volunteers poured water onto the whale to keep its skin damp.
But time was always going to be crucial because the whale's body is not designed to bear its own weight and it could begin to suffocate if kept out of the water too long.
The whale, one of the world's deepest diving mammals that usually travels in groups, triggered international interest when it was first spotted near the Houses of Parliament.
Experts speculated that it was so far from its natural environment because it was either very ill, had got lost chasing food or had been driven from its usual habitat by military testing or loud sonar.
Another northern bottle-nosed whale was seen on Friday in the Thames estuary, and on Saturday the body of a dead harbor porpoise was found upstream at Putney.
Whale expert Peter Evans of the Sea Watch Foundation praised the rescue operation that involved partially beaching the whale, moving it onto an inflatable pontoon and floating it down to the waiting barge.
But he had questioned the wisdom of releasing it into the shallow waters and busy traffic lanes of the Thames estuary.
"There is a real danger that, if it is well enough to release, letting it go again in the estuary will simply mean it will beach itself again," he told Reuters.
Attempts were made during the night to encourage the whale to swim back downriver.
At one stage it was spotted as far downstream as Greenwich, but it returned upstream to what appeared to be its preferred spot between Chelsea and Albert Bridges.
Although it was the first time a whale had been spotted so far up the river, sightings of seals and dolphins have risen steadily further downstream over the past five years as the water quality has improved.