Bottlenose

(Photo:The Guardian)
Nobody could believe it! The bottlenose whales inhabits the Atlantic where they can dive to depths of 1.000 meters, hunting squid, and remaining submerged for up to 2 hours. So imagine how the poor creature felt trapped in the brown waters of the Thames. I was really hoping that the Marine Life Rescue would be able to save him/her. They said that it looked scared and stressed that was old and you could see a grey scar on the left of its black head.

Last night I heard on the radio that the whale did not make it he/she die as they were trying to save her. …


Euan Ferguson joined the crowds on a poignant day by the Thames

Sunday January 22, 2006
The Observer

Just before noon, at 11.53, I saw the dorsal fin burst out again, but facing east, towards the sea. Had London's whale sensed the sudden turn in the tide and started swimming against the (now incoming) tide, as whales do, and would it make it?

The answer was very soon no. For the next five minutes the whale was in danger of beaching - Tannoy calls came from the coastguard warning crowds away from the shingle's edge - and just before noon it grounded and the worries began, the floats and the cranes and the manhandling.

And the crowds began arriving, in true force - the banks of the Thames can never have been busier. Nobody could see much, but the mood was friendly, not jostling; rescue workers below called up, at 2pm, for some hot drinks and the shouts were relayed by the crowd to the nearest houses.

And, hours later, partygoers in Battersea pressed their noses against pub windows to see the latest developments, the bad news and the end of a strangely gripping story. In a month or less we will have forgotten; but the day will surely serve as some kind of benchmark. In the last day or so lovers will have been taken, jobs will have been won and lost, novels begun, tears shed at funerals, new life conceived and, when asked can you remember when that happened, we can answer: I remember it well, because it was that day. The day a whale sailed through the middle of London; and the people of the city, rather than trying to hack it to death, came in their thousands and lifted it and tried their hardest to sail it back.