Out for a run today, I made sure to make time for a bit of whale watching. A good couple of thousand people look to have had the same idea as me – both sides of the river from Battersea Bridge to Albert Bridge were swamped with people. Some of the smarter TV stations had set up several cameras along the river, making sure that if the whale comes back downstream, they’ll get prime views.
Things didn’t look good from where I was, and this looks like it could all end badly – even if they do somehow get it back into deep water, who knows whether it will ever find its way to its pod or whether it will just make the same mistake again and head up the Thames.
Since living along the Thames, I’ve seen the a seal, a couple of dolphins, many dead fish and even been perhaps a 100 yards from the torso of a young boy that was found floating in the river, but I haven’t heard of a whale being seen before – and the news is saying that this is the first sighting of such a creature since records began in 1913.
The next step seems to be to load it into a boat and carry it downstream. I’m reminded of the last voyage of Concorde
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I wish the rescue team luck.
