A Northern Bottle-nosed Whale

[Rosemary]

Read in the Western Australian Newspaper
An operation to examine and possibly rescue a Northern Bottle-nosed Whale that has strayed up the River Thames.
Thousands of people lined the banks of the river to watch the divers and marine experts gathered around the stranded animal in waist-deep water at low tide.
Inflatable pontoons were brought alongside the 5-metre long whale and nets passed undernesath it.
The whale which usually travels in groups, was believed to be an adolescent weighing close to three tonees.
Time is running out for the what which is clearly becoming weaker and distressed after being without food and in such shallow waters.
It was at least 40 miles from open sea and several hundred from the North Atlantic, its usual habitat.
It was the first time a whale has been seen so far up the river since records began in 1913.


The poor Whale...I do hope they manage to save him. Has anyone heard anymore about this lovely creatures fate?

 

[hermi-nomi]

The Whale has been stuck in the river Thames (in London) overnight and is weakening as a result. When I first heard of the whale in the Thames I was going to go into London to have a look (I live quite near) but now that it may not survive, I'm not so keen. I will hear the latest news once i stick the radio on but according to this link to the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4633878.stm, the whale has now been put onto a barge in an effort to assess it's well being in order to set it out to sea. The distressing news is that the whale had an accident in crashing into a boat and bleed as a result

 

[HieroGlyph]

I first heard of this on the radio, when they hadnt even identified it. It was thought to be a porpoise at first. Anyway, I pity the poor creature. Its been in fresh water all too long and that cant be comfortable... He/she surely could have been netted and dragged back beyond the tidal things before becoming the pitiful spectacle they are making of it. A sentient being and a sad way to go .

 

[Rosemary]

Oh I do hope they manage to rescue it in time. We see a lot of that in Australia and it always upsets me ...

 

[cornelius]

it was on the news, they said they would keep us in touch on the late night broadcast? fingers crossed

 

[sanityassassin]

just heard the whale has sadly died, the rescue was not successful

 

[GOLLUM]

OH bad luck, I saw this on the news last night.....

 

[HieroGlyph]

It wasn't prophecy...

 

[hermi-nomi]

I heard the news of the creatures demise last night. What's really sad is that I'm not suprised. Two days and we can't shove a whale out of a river? How difficult can it be? As cynical as I was about a rescue attempt, there was a big part of me that imagined hearing the news that the whale had returned to sea ... I couldn't help but wonder what would have happened say a hundred, two hundred years ago if a whale had swam into the Thames ~ what do you guys think?

Perhaps there is someone on this board who knows about animal rescue and so forth who could explain why it was so difficult to get this whale back out to sea? There's part of me that thinks people were allowing the whale to be an attraction ... it makes me sick that people were standing along the river cheering the whale on ...

 

[cornelius]

that's a though one indeed.I think that whales are weak when it comes to stress, so hurying along might have killed it too.

 

[Marky Lazer]

Where will Greenpeace put this one?

 

[hermi-nomi]

Cornelius wrote;

I think that whales are weak when it comes to stress, so hurying along might have killed it too.

It's quite embaressing ... knowing that everyone went to view a whale in a river simply 'cos they might not see the like again. ANd to think the thought of doing the same crossed my mind. To be standing there cheering the rescue efforts on and yet simply be stressing the poor creature out. :-/

 

[HieroGlyph]

... becoming the pitiful spectacle they are making of it...

Sadness.

Some time ago, before the high-speed-spread of the Media, I think this whale would have been harpooned and cut up for food and such. Harpooning would have put it out of its misery. Harsh, I know. But A lot of my sadness came from imagining that something was wrong and terribly sad about the whale. Its all supposition, yes. And even if there was some disease in the whale that made it seek suicide UP a freshwater river, there wouldnt have been any great danger to humans from the meat, I dont think. They are clever beasts. And that isnt 'beast' in any derogatory fashion! They are clever: it may have simply been intentional to keep going upstream untill it finally died

For people to gather and make a spectacle!!! Its folks that are fools. This is a barrier they cannot cross. We might think the animal has lost its way. No. It knew. It knew where the sea was. It loitered too long for us all.

Rest in peace.
And do not suffer.

 

[Omega]

Where will Greenpeace put this one?

Why would Greenpeace get involved in this? The Whale swam up the thames its self, no one forced it up there.

 

[HieroGlyph]

Good point, Omega.

Maybe GreenPeace would be on the shore with load speakers saying "Go home, England. Leave the poor thing in Peace."

Which they didnt.
Stayed away, themselves.
Media. Media...

 

[cornelius]

point. I guess an autpsy will show what drove the whale to the thames. Confusion does happen , whales in general aren't used to dodge ships and so. and the changing of the climat does harm to that too. I don't know.

 

[Omega]

According to earlier reports, the whale was following some fish to eat and got dis-orientated and swam up the thames.

 

[Dryad]

Why would Greenpeace get involved in this? The Whale swam up the thames its self, no one forced it up there.

I assume Greenpeace would want the body of the whale for their own research purposes as I saw an article about them collecting a dead beached whale not so long back. However last reports I saw said that an autopsy is to be carried out by the head of the Marine Mammals Strandings Programme (never knew we had such a thing).

It could be that people didn't step in quickly enough to save the whale, but I can't help but think that it's appearance in the Thames meant that it was too far gone to be saved anyway.

 

[hermi-nomi]

What amazes me isn't so much that the whale swam into the Thames (after all, despite my disbelief, the Thames is actually cleaner than it used to be and houses lots of fishes) but that it got over the Thames flood barriers ...
As to all the claims that autopises are now to be done ... am I the only one who suspects that this was the intention all along?

 

[HieroGlyph]

Since the Media stirred it all up in the first place, I doubt theres going to be pause for anymore thought, Hermi. Everyone will want to poke and prod to answer questions that no-one really needs to ask. Not in the name of science. Not in the name of public concern. Nor in the name of conservation. Its gone beyond that. There are no actual answers, I think. The whale saught death somewhere along the line, somewhere nearer the mouth of the Thames. And what I say is speculation. Where has all sense of respect gone?