Fears rise for whale stranded in River Thames
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-01-21 17:59

A whale stranded in the River Thames in central London is becoming tired and disorientated and may not survive long enough to swim back out to sea, marine experts said on Saturday.

A northern bottlenose whale which swam up the River Thames in London on Friday Jan 20 2006, passing Parliament and Big Ben, and drawing large crowds of spectators to the banks of the waterway. As TV stations followed the rare spectacle with live coverage, the mammal wandered into shallow water near the muddy banks of the tidal waterway, and several people jumped into the cold river to coax it away from shore. [AP]

The northern bottle-nosed whale swam up the Thames on Friday, passing the Houses of Parliament and drawing large crowds to witness the rare event.

At 0930 GMT on Saturday a Reuters photographer saw the whale between Albert and Chelsea bridges as it fought the river's incoming tide around 30 miles (48 km) from the English Channel.

"It is obviously distressed and tired and we must warn that there may not be a happy ending to this unfolding saga," said Tony Woodley, director of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue group.

"As the tide drops again throughout this morning we will have our medics on hand with equipment in case it strands on the river's banks as they are gradually exposed.

"If it strands ... we can then make informed and unemotional decisions about the whale's future," he added.

Witnesses said the whale was between 5 and 8 metres (yards) in length and some said on Friday that blood was visible in the water.

Experts are unclear what the world's deepest-diving whale -- a sociable animal that normally travels in groups -- is doing on its own and in such shallow waters.

On theory is that the whale, native to the northern North Atlantic, had been following fish upstream and became disorientated.

The Natural History Museum said it was the first time the species had been recorded in the Thames since its records began in 1913.