Baby whale stuck in River Thames euthanised ‘to end its suffering’
An exhausted baby whale stuck in the River Thames since yesterday has been euthanised ‘to put an end to its suffering’, rescuers have said.
The British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) said the Minke whale calf had ‘deteriorated rapidly’ over the past few hours and suffered extensive injuries during its struggle.
Hundreds gathered at Richmond Lock and Weir last night, in south-west London, after the small whale got stuck on the lock’s boat rollers at about 7.30pm.
Crowds cheered as rescuers arrived at 9pm and finally managed to free the whale four hours later to assess its condition.
But the whale wriggled free from its refloatation pontoons while being moved to a safer location and rescuers lost sight of it in the early hours of the morning.
Rescuers spotted it swimming at Teddington Lock earlier this morning but after the whale became stationary in the water up against a wall, they said it was unlikely to survive.
After medical assessment, the BDMLR decided it would be kindest to put the mammal to sleep. London Zoo vets euthanised it on Monday evening.
Julia Cable, national co-ordinator of the BDLMR, said the whale had been ‘suffering quite badly’ and her team, along with rescuers from the Port of London Authority, Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI), London Fire Brigade and the police wanted to ‘ease any suffering’.
Speaking as the whale was put down, Ms Cable explained: ‘They will give the whale a large anaesthetic dose which will put it to sleep. It’s as straight forward as that.
‘The vets explained to me they will inject it near the liver and the anaesthetic will slowly go through the system. I can’t tell you how long that will be.
‘The whale shouldn’t feel anything. They are just putting it to sleep.’
‘It’s always sad but we know putting it back into the open sea would’ve been sending it to starve,’ she added. ‘It’s nutritionally in a poor state, it has run out of energy and will be dehydrated and starved.
‘It’s been separated from its mother or a group and will definitely be socially dependant.’
She had said earlier that the whale, which comes from the Northern North Sea – hundreds of miles away from the Thames – was ‘as good as stranded’ and had suffered a number of stranding injuries.
Fears for the calf grew when it headed away from the sea and faced a struggle for survival in the Thames, where nutrition is much more meagre than it its natural habitat in the north Atlantic.
Dan Jarvis, welfare development and field support officer at the BDMLR said it would have been a long journey for the stranded whale to make it back to the open sea – around 30 miles – and logistically a big task.
He said the whale was put on pontoons to make it more comfortable on Sunday night as it was decided then that it should be put to sleep.
‘It actually managed to get free of the pontoons unfortunately and back into the river,’ he said.
‘It’s for a very good reason they’ve [the whales] come ashore,’ he added.
‘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.’
The common minke whale is the smallest of all baleen whales, reaching 8-9 metres (26-30 feet) long. The whales prefer cooler temperatures and enjoy a varied diet of krill and schooling fish, according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation group.
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