London’s so happening, even marine wildlife can’t keep away!
My personal though is thatthey should zabihafy it and eat it, but maybe I’m just hungry… :yummy:
A whale has made its way up the River Thames to central London, where it is being watched by riverside crowds.
The northern bottle-nosed whale, which is 16-18ft long and is usually found in deep sea waters, has passed Parliament and is moving upstream.
“I saw it blow, it was a spout of water which sparkled in the air,” said eyewitness Tom Howard-Vyne.
A boat has been sent to protect the whale and rescuers have been trying to keep it away from the Thames’s banks.
It has come within yards of the banks and has crashed into an empty boat, while trapped in a narrow estuary between the banks and moored vessels.
Vets are remaining on standby, experts have said it does not appear to be ill, but are concerns it will get weaker and may become beached.
The RNLI say it is the first whale rescue on the Thames.
Reports of two whales in the Thames were first received on Thursday by the British Divers Marine Life group.
But at 0830 GMT on Friday, a man on a train called in to say he might have been hallucinating, but he had just seen a whale in the Thames.
Alison Shaw of the Marine and Freshwater Conservation Programme at London Zoo, said the northern bottle-nosed whale was usually found in groups of three to 10 and there had been sightings of another two.
She told the BBC News website: "This is extremely rare in British waters as they are normally found in deep waters in the North Atlantic.
"It is about 16-18ft long, so is relatively mature
“It is a very long way from home and we don’t know why it has ended up here”.
The whales usually weigh about seven tonnes, which will complicate any rescue attempt.
London Aquarium Curator Paul Hale told the BBC: "Getting that to do anything it doesn’t want to do is going to be extremely difficult.
“This is a very active swimming animal and it’s not going to go anywhere it doesn’t want to go so we have to persuade it to swim back out.”
Liz Sandeman, a medic of the Marine Connection, a whale and dolphin protection charity, accompanied the RNLI to examine the animal and said it looked “quite healthy and quite relaxed”.
But she feared it might be in danger from other boats, or be frightened by the noise.
“The last thing we want to do is stress the animal out,” she said.
Over the years dolphins and seals have been spotted in the Thames.
Sperm whales have been seen in the Thames Estuary and porpoises have feasted on fish near Vauxhall Bridge, in central London.
now one more reason to move there :love:
