Whale dies after becoming stranded in the Thames
RESCUE ATTEMPT ON YOUNG MINKE BEACHED AT WEIR FAILS
A YOUNG whale stranded in the Thames for two days has been put to sleep after divers’ attempts to save it failed.
A Metropolitan Police officer confirmed that the whale had been euthanised where it had become beached at Teddington Weir and its body was removed in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
It was to be wrapped in a tarpaulin and transported away from the river “once people aren’t there”, the officer said.
Around 10 police officers were sent to the scene on Monday afternoon in order to ensure crowds were socially distanced.
Hundreds had gathered on the banks of the Thames in west London across the previous two days to witness attempts to save the whale.
At one point some schoolgirls started chanting “save the whale” as spectators remained hopeful it could be saved.
However, the mood shifted the more the tide went out with the whale, which measured between 10ft and 13ft, becoming beached and all hopes were dashed when police officers began moving through the crowd telling them the whale had died.
The news was confirmed at 6.30pm, less than two hours after a statement was released revealing that the whale had little chance of surviving after becoming completely beached at Teddington Lock.
A statement from British Divers
Marine Life Rescue at 4.45pm said: “The juvenile minke whale in the River Thames at Teddington Weir has deteriorated rapidly over the last couple of hours of monitoring by BDMLR medics and representatives from the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme – UK Strandings, based at the Zoological Society of London.
“The animal is positioned against the river wall and the tide is now dropping quickly and it is expected the animal will be beached very soon.
“BDMLR medics will try to position themselves to prevent the whale entering deep water again where it is now having difficulty swimming as its strength reserves seem to be compromised.
“Once the whale is beached a veterinary team will be on standby to euthanise the animal to end its suffering.
“In the meantime the team will continue to do what they can to care for the animal under these sad circumstances.”
The whale had first become stranded on Richmond Lock’s boat rollers on Sunday, having earlier been spotted near Barnes Bridge.
RNLI teams managed to free the whale but it broke free as it was being towed to safer water and was seen swimming between Richmond and Teddington earlier on Monday before becoming stuck.
Teddington is further down the Thames in the wrong direction from the sea.
A vet from the Zoological Society of London administered the injection shortly after 6pm.
Julia Cable, national co-ordinator of the BDMLR, told the BBC the mammal had not been “acting the way it did last night” and had “basically lost any energy that it had left in it”.
She added: “It’s also got another stranding injury which, along with ones from yesterday, all adds up really.”
Dan Jarvis, also of BDMLR, said: “It’s for a very good reason they’ve come ashore. Sometimes it is by accident, they do get stranded, but usually sadly it is the case that they’re already seriously ill or badly injured.
“And there’s not a great deal we can do in that situation.”
Liz Sandeman, co-founder of Marine Connection, said the welfare of the animal had to be considered as it was not just a case of getting it back to sea if it was a young animal.
“It wouldn’t know how to feed. It learns everything from its mother – how to navigate, how to hunt,” she said.
Minke whales are the smallest of the great whales, growing to about 33ft, and are usually found throughout the northern Atlantic and Pacific oceans.