Whale in central London

Whale heading up the Thames

read about this earlier. Thought it was pretty 'cute' that people were wading into the Thames to help it etc

I hope they manage to get him/her to turn around. poor little bugger

Is the japanese embassey nearby?

I wonder if Greenpeace have anything to do with it? Maybe it's doing a solo protest against the Japanese whaling industry in England 'cos in Japan they'd probably kill it...

If it's swimming in the Thames it won't last long anyway poor thing. Anything that swims in the Thames reduces it's life expectancy to a matter of hours.

These poor animals are getting confused so often these days! Too much noise. Hope they can save it!

@MB: Yep..to blame the U.S. for another thing...their new ultra high powered sonar is resulting in record strandings. Whenever they do a test, the next few days you can read reports about X number of dophins and whales died...

The NRDC - National Resource Defense Counsel - has been working to block this technology from being used.

Course this one could just be sick...and now it will be really sick.

Maybe they are filming Moby Dick in London?

wtf ? the poor guy tries to go site seeing and he gets the RNLI and greenpeace and what not trying to rescue him. How do ye know he doesn't want to be there ??? Maybe he wanted some real Laaaandan fish and chips...oder ?

Something like this happened in Cork a few years back - three killer whales swam up the Lee into the city.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1392353.stm

Just sight seeing I guess. Or perhaps they got bored of fish and were waiting for some drunks to fall into the river??

well the article if you read it said they might have to put him down if he didn't turn around - so lets hope his sightseeing sticks with London and doesn't go further upstream

I am afraid this will turn out bad.

jeesh that seems harsh. surely he has the right to swim up there if he wants - what right do we have to stop him - even if he's endangering himself. maybe he has his reasons - maybe the japanese got his misses and he's trying to find the embassy to get some pay back.

ooo sudden flashback to that simpsons episode where the dolphins stage a revolt and start walking and talking

I want to know how he got through the Thames Barrier...

presumably the same way ships do ??

false alarm.
its just vanessa feltz going for her annual bath.

But if it's such a big deal, why did they let it in?

I'm now imagining a fisherman standing there:

"You ain't comin' in without a dorsal fin, gottit?"

Just seen the whole story on Sky News...

Back to celebrity big Blubber for me!!!

G

The barrier is normally open, unless there is a risk of flooding. Here is a list of when they have closed the barrier due to high flood risks...

this is funny and cute at the sametime! hope the little guy (well not so little) survives!

itd be cool to see him swimming around there...

He;s obviously not a northerner, we don't go down to London willingly

I always got the impression Northern birds did go down willingly?

Otherwise not got much going for them frankly.

My brain is now trying to decide between "Vanessa Feltz" or a "Northern Monkey Bird" if I had to. Its a tough call. Might be one for the Gentelmans pages.

Got your claws out this morning, haven't you?

What's up, JE, did you just get knocked back by a couple of northern birds, or summat?

Apparently the dude is not doing too well and may end up being stranded.

That's a bit harsh. I have done all right for myself in the past thank you very much.

It's a fuckin' disgrace.

Day 3 of the 'Whale swims up The Thames' story and we still don't have a name for it.

What is the UK coming to???

My money's on 'Flippy'

Why are these folk interfering with nature?

Stressing the poor bugger..

Well he is on a barge headed home.

Lucky it didn't turn out like that one that got stranded on a beach in America about 6 years ago. Anyone seen the video? At the time it was the funniest thing I'd *ever* seen.

In case you haven't seen it: a whale was stranded on the beach and died. They couldn't move it, so decided to destroy it with explosives and let the seagulls dispose of it. It blew up ok, but resulted in huge chunks of whale meat raining down over an approx. 500m radius, destroying cars and injuring people. Funniest part about it is the commentary from the american news reader.

The Infamous Exploding Whale Video

Yes I lived in Portland at the time. It was not Oregon in its best moment. Sadly the town of Florence is a beautiful town but not the brightest though.

Idiots with dynamite. Ok Fred, you can take your fingers out of your ears now and run like hell!

according to CNN, the whale has died.

Yeah, heard that too. I guess it finished the job that it started.

sad but something tells me that you should not mess with nature

Sorry to inform you that it's definitely dead. It went into convulsions on the barge and died at 7 pm London time.

@Malcolm Spudbury

Taken from your link...


Just a bit more than 6 years

so kak that the whale died

well I guess the majority of restaurants in Soho will be having food specials for the next few weeks...

so sad he didn't make it

Wow, this thread went from charming to depressing really fast. Why couldn't you guys just lie and say that he made it back out and was last seen frolicking with his family in the open sea? And that maybe he did a thank you wave with his tail before he headed off? Children might be reading this, you know.

*sniff*

Oh stop blubbering.

Whales...blubber...geddit

Fine, I'm leaving now.

Farewhale.

(shamelessly nicked off several of yesterday's front pages)

Marshbot.

He made it out all fine and well. That "dead" Whale was actually a decoy and they sneaked the real one out under cover of darkness as it did not want all the publicity...

Sushi anyone?

Souvenir t-shirts are out already:

Whale update: the whale belongs to the queen, memorial planned:

A Memorial to "Wally"

I was wondering yesterday when Elton John was going to bring out a single in tribute to "Englands Whale" ;-)

And it also transpires that Wally didn't have a willy (i.e. Wally was a lady Whale).

maybe her lasting memory can be to have somehow helped in awareness about whales and to support the campaign to stop whaling

what a bleedin horrible name - who thought that one up?
good grief

Maybe a little bit too much is being made of this?

OK, now do not get me wrong. It is a once-in-a-lifetime event in London to see a Whale swimming up the Thames *insert appropriate joke here* and it was sad, yet somehow predictable, that it died. But believe me, the whole whaling issue is a totally different matter indeed and I think it is all getting a bit out of hand.

Oh dear. Cynical old me eh?

How is it different..

Some bastards in a boat Killed a whale.. !

Sounds similar to me!