Breaking news: A Northern Bottlenose Whale is swimming up the Thames in Central London.
Liz Sandeman, a marine mammal medic, went out on a boat to examine the whale in a lifeboat.
After her close encounter with the creature, she said: “It looks quite healthy and quite relaxed. It’s breathing normally and its weight seems good.
“It struggled a bit when it passed under Westminster Bridge but that’s the hardest bridge for it to swim past because of the tide.
“It took about 45 minutes for it to get past the bridge and 20 minutes later it was about 100ft further upstream towards Millbank. It’s slow but not because it’s ill.”
The medic, a director of charity The Marine Connection, said boats in the river could be a danger to the animal.“There’s also the noise which could affect it – the Thames is extremely busy,” she said.
“The last thing we want to do is stress the animal out. Some people think it has lost its way or is not feeling well, but it’s very hard to say why it is here.”
“Some people think it has lost its way or is not feeling well, but it’s very hard to say why it is here.”
Good lord, the water really must be clean.
