It captivated onlookers with an unprecedented appearance in the shallow waters of London’s River Thames, but the whale spotted swimming past the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben died while rescue crews attempted in vain to ferry it to sea.
Swaddled in blankets on a rusting salvage barge, the northern bottle-nose — watched by thousands in London and millions worldwide on television — suffered a series of convulsions on Saturday evening as marine experts raced to reach the southern English coast and release the ailing animal.
A few thousand people lined the banks at Albert Bridge in south London to watch the rescue attempt unfold, cheering as marine wildlife experts used a crane to haul the 6m whale on to Crossness barge, hoping to speed toward the sea.
Crowds raced to bridges across London as the barge made its way toward open sea, with some spectators leaning over railings and others darting through traffic from one side to the other as the vessel passed underneath.
And some even tried to give the mammal a name — the Daily Express dubbed it ”Willy” as in Free Willy, online bloggers called it Gonzo and the Evening Standard named it Pete the Pilot.
The rescue crew faced a race against time to reach deeper waters — as the whale’s internal organs suffered the crippling effect of being out of the water.
”It was a brave, valiant, but ultimately tragic effort to get the whale to safety,” said Leila Sadler, scientific officer at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA).
”It was already dehydrated, hadn’t been feeding and being out of the water would have, in effect, shrivelled the animal’s internal organs,” Sadler said. ”It was essential to try to take the whale out to sea on the barge, but there was always the risk this would happen.”
Bemused commuters had rubbed their eyes in disbelief when the whale was spotted in the water in the heart of London on Friday morning — the first of its type seen in the Thames since records began in 1913.
Photographs of the animal swimming past the city’s famous landmarks were seen on newsstands across the world — and the fate of the mammal was tracked live on news channels across the globe.
”There was a real chance that the rescue attempt could have succeeded, but these type of mammals are very prone to the effects of stress and I’m afraid it all became too much,” said Tony Woodley, spokesperson for the British Divers Marine Life Rescue group, who led the rescue attempt.
”It was always going to be a race against time to get it to the ocean, especially with the effect being out of the water has on a whale’s body,” he said. ”All the crew on the barge are shattered by the death. They were tired and exhausted, but had been determined to do everything they could to get the whale to safety. It really is a terrible shame.”
The RSPCA said an international television audience of about 23-million had tuned in to news reports across the world on Saturday to follow the fate of the whale.
Woodley said that a veterinarian would conduct an autopsy on the whale later before it was disposed of.
Northern bottle-noses are normally seen in the deep northern Atlantic, diving deeply and travelling in pods. When fully grown, they can reach lengths of 8m — the size of a traditional red double-decker London bus.
The whales swim away from their pods when sick, old or injured, said Mark Simmonds, science director at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, although witnesses reported seeing a second whale in a different section of the river on Friday.
Last week, marine officials said they saw two bottle-nose whales in north-eastern Scotland when the mammals are normally seen in north-western Scotland. That, coupled with the second sighting on Friday, could suggest that something is disrupting the whales.
Scientists have said fluctuating ocean temperatures, predators, lack of food and even sonar from ships can send whales astray into potentially dangerous waters. — Sapa-AP