Rare bottlenose whale appears in the River Thames

photograph (c) Marine Connection, 2006


Late afternoon yesterday, 19 January, the Marine Connection received a call from British Divers Marine Life regarding the sighting of a whale in the Thames. Liz Sandeman, Director of Operations, immediately arranged to accompany the Thames River Police Marine Officers to identify the species of the marine mammal and also check its’ state of health.

This morning Sandeman accompanied the Thames River RNLI lifeboat crew and photographed the animal, confirming it as a Northern Bottlenose Whale - an animal very rarely seen by inshore observers. Being a deep diving mammal it usually frequents deeper waters, and to see this animal in the Thames was very unusual indeed.

Throughout the day the health of the animal was monitored and inspected by the Marine Connection, British Divers and also Paul Jepson, one of the UK's leading marine mammal experts, based at the Zoological Society in London. The animal appeared to be healthy and requests were made that access to it should be limited, to avoid any unnecessary stress to the whale. However as news of the whales existence in the area appeared in the media, boat traffic and public attention escalated to such an extent that we were concerned that it would cause stress and disturbance to the animal. This appeared to be confirmed as the whale appeared to become confused and started to swim in the shallows, sustaining an injury to its’ tail fluke which, although not fatal would obviously distress the animal further.

The situation is now being monitored and a full rescue plan is in place should the animal strand over the coming weekend. Let us all hope that the whale simply turns around and finds its’ way back out to the open ocean from which it came.