Dead whale found afloat in Thames

A humpback whale found dead and floating in the River Thames is thought to have starved to death.

Scientists said the whale was spotted on Thursday and then not seen again until it appeared near Dartford Bridge on the Kent/London border on Saturday.

Toxicology tests are being carried out, but no food was found in its stomach and it has been assumed it starved.

Experts from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) said it could have got lost on its first exploration alone.

news.bbc.co.uk...

How did it get lost?

It has obviously travelled far out of its way.. Is man made sonar to blame for its mistake?
Being lost is more than likely the reason why it starved, panic must have set in also. we all tend to forget to do other things when we are in a panic situation. Or has pollution and mans greed of over fishing the seas another part of this whales demise?

Was it expanding its hunting grounds in its search for food.
Was it a combination of these things?

This is such a shame that this has happened.

Ohh noooo....

That's a real shame.. Beautiful beast..

Interesting how you said sonar, my first thought exactly!
But it's odd how the last Humpback was stranded in Wales, the complete other side of the country..

This was one lost whale. Looks like it might have taken a wrong turn above Scotland, on the way down to the tropical feeding grounds?

reply to post by purehughness

Humpbacks do not feed in the tropics. They breed and bear their young there and fast the entire time. Krill, their primary food source, is found in arctic regions.

reply to post by Phage


You've very right. Whups!

Wrong way around!

Cheers dude.

I heard a rumour around the boatyard where I live, a few miles away from the MOD/Qinetic site at Foulness, that they've been testing some kind of sonar inhibiting device recently. A few fishermen who are based here have had their depth-sounders go haywire out in the Thames estuary, giving weird depth readings or none. Foulness is on the northern tip of the estuary. If the whale headed into the river from the north sea it's likely it would have come fairly close to Foulness, as the Whitaker channel is one of the deeper ones heading through the English channel to the atlantic.

It's very rare for Humpbacks to be anywhere near the channel, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and devoid of krill, so it's more likely that this poor animal was well lost before it got anywhere near the Thames.

(edit for crappy grammar.)

[edit on 14-9-2009 by Karilla]

Could be natural selection in action (not trying to sound like I don't care).

The Whale could have just not been on its A-game, got lost, ended up where it did and starved to death as a result.