The River Thames whale, affectionately nicknamed Willy by Londoners, was a juvenile female

northern bottlenose whale The northern bottlenose whale (''Hyperoodon ampullatus'') is a species of beaked whale in the ziphiid family, being one of two members of the genus ''Hyperoodon''. The northern bottlenose whale was hunted heavily by Norway and Britain in the 19t ...

which was discovered swimming in the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteris ...

on Friday 20 January 2006. According to the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

, she was five metres (16-18ft) long and weighed about twelve tonnes (24,400 lb). The whale appeared to have been lost, as her normal habitat would have been around the coasts of the far north of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, and in the seas around the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

. It was the first time the species had been seen in the Thames since records began in 1913. She died from

convulsions A convulsion is a medical condition where the body muscles contract and relax rapidly and repeatedly, resulting in uncontrolled shaking. Because epileptic seizures typically include convulsions, the term ''convulsion'' is sometimes used as a s ...

as she was being rescued shortly after 19:00 GMT on 21 January 2006.

History

19 January

On Thursday 19 January reports from the

Thames Barrier The Thames Barrier is a retractable Flood barrier, barrier system built to protect the floodplain of most of Greater London from exceptionally high tides and storm surges moving up from the North Sea. It has been operational since 1982. When n ...

control team were made to the

British Divers Marine Life Rescue British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) is a British charity established in 1988 and is the United Kingdom's leading frontline marine mammal response organisation. It utilises a network of trained volunteers around the country to respond to ...

(BDMLR) that one, or possibly two,

pilot whale Pilot whales are cetaceans belonging to the genus ''Globicephala''. The two extant species are the long-finned pilot whale (''G. melas'') and the short-finned pilot whale (''G. macrorhynchus''). The two are not readily distinguishable at sea, a ...

s had come through the barrier. This turned out to be the bottlenose whale, and BDMLR commenced monitoring the whale that evening.

20 January

At 8:30 am on Friday 20 January, David Dopin was on a train when he phoned the authorities to say that he believed he had been

hallucinating A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the qualities of a real perception. Hallucinations are vivid, substantial, and are perceived to be located in external objective space. Hallucination is a combinatio ...

, as he thought he had just spotted a whale swimming in the River Thames. Throughout the morning, more and more

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

sightings were reported, confirmed when television cameras captured the bottlenose whale on video. The whale beached several times during the day as the tide went out. Members of the public went onto the

foreshore The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species of ...

to encourage the whale back into deeper water. Concern began to grow for the animal; bottlenose whales are used to swimming in seas up to deep, but the Thames has a depth of only at most. Blood was also visible. As night approached, there were signs that the whale may have been swimming with the current out of London towards the sea: an unconfirmed sighting by a BBC cameraman at 9:00 pm placed the whale in

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

. The area was searched but nothing was found. There were no further official sightings until 1:10 am the following morning in

Battersea Battersea is a large district in south London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and extends along the south bank of the River Thames. It includes the Battersea Park. History Batter ...

, after the

tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravity, gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide t ...

had changed. The whale was monitored until 3:30 am, when

Jamie Henn Jamie Henn is a US climate activist and founder and director of ''Fossil Free Media'', a nonprofit media lab that supports the movement to end fossil fuels. Fossil Free Media is the home of ''Clean Creatives,'' a campaign pressuring public relati ...

, a Marine Mammal Medic working for BDMLR finally called the monitoring off as the whale would not strand at high tide.

21 January

Rescuers attempt to calm the Thames whale

At 7:30 am the next morning BDMLR members, along with Port Authority officials, started observing the whale again. It was decided that the BDMLR would have to assist the whale as she was not strong enough to swim out of the Thames by herself, and had been losing ground against the tide. There was fear later in the day that the whale could have perished, as she had not been seen for some time; however, she was spotted by a Port Authority boat at 9:26 am near Albert Bridge. The BDMLR decided it was time to act. With significant help from the

Port of London Authority The Port of London Authority (PLA) is a self-funding public trust established on 31 March 1909 in accordance with the Port of London Act 1908 to govern the Port of London. Its responsibility extends over the Tideway of the River Thames and its ...

and the

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

BDMLR medics decided to deliberately beach the whale at low tide on a sandbank, and then move her out of the Thames. At midday they captured the whale, covered her eyes to prevent her from panicking, and made a medical examination. After two hours, the whale was slowly and gently lifted onto a

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

by a crane near Albert Bridge. By this stage there were thousands of people watching the situation develop from the banks of the river, and the images were seen across the world. The excitement of the previous day had disappeared, and there was now serious concern that the whale would be unable to survive for much longer. As the barge rushed along the Thames towards the sea, news channels provided non-stop coverage of the journey. It reached the Thames Barrier at approximately 5:00 pm. Later, despite the darkness, it was reported that crowds were lining the

Queen Elizabeth II Bridge The Dartford-Thurrock River Crossing, commonly known as the Dartford Crossing and until 1991 the Dartford Tunnel, is a major road crossing of the River Thames in England, carrying the A282 road between Dartford in Kent in the south and Thurro ...

to catch a glimpse of the barge. As each hour passed, there was growing concern for the whale's health, and she was said to be taking a turn for the worse due to being out of the water, as well as slowly being crushed by her own body weight. Plans to release the whale into the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

ocean were shelved (the rescue team having previously put out a public appeal for a suitable boat); instead she was to be released off the

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

coast near

Margate Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and Westbrook, Kent, ...

at Shivering Sands. All this time, the BDMLR were saying the final decision would be taken by a vet on board, who would decide whether to release or euthanise the whale. Later the mammal was described as being "distressed", breathing heavily and developing muscle problems. At 7:08 pm on 21 January it was confirmed the whale had died after suffering from convulsions.

Post mortem

A team led by veterinarian Paul Jepson carried out an immediate

necropsy An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any di ...

on the whale on behalf of the

Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained the London Zoo, and since 1931 Whipsnade Park. History On 29 ...

. The whale's body had several gashes along its underbelly, head and dorsal fin, most likely caused by collisions with boats and rubbing against the rocky river bed. It was confirmed that the whale was a female juvenile. The results, announced on 25 January 2006, showed that she had died from a combination of problems including dehydration, muscle damage and kidney failure.

Reasons for entry

The reasons for the whale's presence in the Thames were unclear. A number of possible causes were raised prior to the post-mortem: * Illness: some previous whale strandings are believed to have been caused by physical ill-health, resulting from factors such as

parasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...

infections or pollution, which can disorient whales and cause them to strand themselves in shallow water. * Noise pollution: there have been a number of incidents in which military

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...

systems have caused hearing damage to

marine mammal Marine mammals are aquatic mammals that rely on the ocean and other marine ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as seals, whales, manatees, sea otters and polar bears. They are an informal group, unified only by their reli ...

s. It was suggested that

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

sonar testing may have been a factor; however, the post-mortem revealed no damage to the whale's auditory functions. * A food hunt: it was suggested that the whale may have been chasing a shoal of fish up the Thames. However, the principal food source for the northern bottlenose whale is

squid True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting t ...

, not fish. * A navigational error: according to the scientists who conducted the post-mortem, the most likely explanation for the incident was simply that the whale was seeking to return to its normal feeding grounds in the North Atlantic and took a wrong turn, mistakenly swimming west up the Thames rather than taking the longer route around the coast.

Events after the whale's death

It was initially thought that the whale's body might be buried in a landfill, or incinerated if it presented a health hazard. After a campaign by '' The Sun'' newspaper to raise the £10,000 necessary for the recovery of the whale's skeleton, it was announced on 23 January that the bones of the mammal were to be given to the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

with the intention that they be used for scientific research. Due to infrequent strandings of the species, it was the first complete northern bottlenose whale skeleton to enter the UK's national collection of marine mammal skeletons for more than 20 years. The skeleton was put on public display at the end of January 2007 at The Guardian and Observer Archive and Visitor Centre. In 2006, the BDMLR placed for auction on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

the small red watering can used during the attempt to keep the body of the whale wet on its journey down the Thames. The can was autographed by the rescue team. Following a 10-day auction attracting 50 genuine bids a total of £2,050 was raised. The auction was marred by dozens of spoof bids, several exceeding £1 million.

Damon Albarn Damon Albarn (; born 23 March 1968) is an English-Icelandic musician, singer-songwriter and composer, best known as the frontman and primary lyricist of the rock band Blur and as the co-creator and primary musical contributor of the virtual ...

wrote a song called " Northern Whale", which was recorded by his

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

The Good, the Bad & the Queen The Good, the Bad & the Queen were an English art rock supergroup composed of singer Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz, bassist Paul Simonon of the Clash, guitarist Simon Tong of the Verve, and Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen. They released the ...

for their album ''

''. At their

BBC Electric Proms The BBC Radio 2 Electric Proms (formerly the BBC Electric Proms) was an October music festival in London run by the BBC for five years, 2006–2010. On 31 January 2011, the BBC announced that the event would be discontinued with immediate effec ...

concert (26 October 2006), Albarn introduced the song by saying:

"This next song started off as a love song, for someone I love. And then a whale came up the Thames... And it turned into a song about a whale."

On 21 December 2006

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

screened ''The Whale That Swam To London'', a 60-minute documentary about the events of January 2006.

Other whales

Throughout the two days that the whale was in the Thames waters, there were unconfirmed sightings of a second whale near the

and in

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

. On 21 January,

whale song Whales use a variety of sounds for animal communication, communication and sensation. The mechanisms used to produce sound vary from one family of cetaceans to another. Marine mammals, including whales, dolphins, and porpoises, are much more d ...

was reported around the

Thames Estuary The Thames Estuary is where the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea, in the south-east of Great Britain. Limits An estuary can be defined according to different criteria (e.g. tidal, geographical, navigational or in terms of salini ...

. The body of a small

- later confirmed as a

porpoise Porpoises are a group of fully aquatic marine mammals, all of which are classified under the family Phocoenidae, parvorder Odontoceti (toothed whales). Although similar in appearance to dolphins, they are more closely related to narwhals an ...

- was discovered upstream at

Putney Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ancient paris ...

the same day. There is no indication that this incident had any connection with that of the Thames whale. There had been reports of a

harbour porpoise The harbour porpoise (''Phocoena phocoena'') is one of eight extant species of porpoise. It is one of the smallest species of cetacean. As its name implies, it stays close to coastal areas or river estuaries, and as such, is the most familiar ...

in the Thames near

Chiswick Chiswick ( ) is a district of west London, England. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and Full ...

and

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...

on the Tuesday and Wednesday prior to the Thames whale. BDMLR medics did several watches to no avail; the body of this porpoise washed up nearby on the same day as the whale rescue. In early February, a

sperm whale The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the genus ''Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the sperm whale famil ...

stranded itself in the

Humber The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between th ...

Estuary and died shortly afterwards. On 15 February 2006, a young adult male sperm whale was washed ashore in

Skegness Skegness ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Lindsey District of Lincolnshire, England. On the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, the town is east of Lincoln and north-east of Boston. With a population of 19,579 as of 2011, i ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

. Paul Jepson from the Zoological Society of London performed an autopsy. On 14 September 2009, a young

humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The hump ...

was washed ashore in the Thames at

Dartford Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames estuary, is Thurrock in ...

. It is thought to have died from starvation. On 25 September 2018, a

beluga whale The beluga whale () (''Delphinapterus leucas'') is an Arctic and sub-Arctic cetacean. It is one of two members of the family Monodontidae, along with the narwhal, and the only member of the genus ''Delphinapterus''. It is also known as the whi ...

was sighted travelling inland in the Thames estuary and was described as 'in trouble'. He was nicknamed '

Benny Benny or Bennie is a given name or a shortened version of the given name Benjamin or, less commonly, Benedict, Bennett, Benito, Benson, Bernice, Ebenezer or Bernard. People Bennie Given name *Bennie M. Bunn (1907–1943), American Marine offic ...

' by several news outlets, and was sighted again the following day near

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...

, Kent. On May 9, 2021, a

Minke whale The minke whale (), or lesser rorqual, is a species complex of baleen whale. The two species of minke whale are the common (or northern) minke whale and the Antarctic (or southern) minke whale. The minke whale was first described by the Danish n ...

was spotted in the Thames near the

Richmond lock Richmond Lock and Footbridge is a lock, rising and falling low-tide barrage integrating controlled sluices and pair of pedestrian bridges on the River Thames in south west London, England and is a Grade II* listed structure. It is the furthest ...

. It had become stuck on the lock's boat rollers and had to be freed from members of the

(PLA),

Royal National Lifeboat Institution The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on some inland waterways. It i ...

(RNLI) and the British Divers Marine Life Rescue service. It was later put down.

References

External links

"The Official Thames Whale web site"
( BDMLR)
"Revived river boasts seals, sea horses and one piranha"
(''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'')
"London whale dies a lonely death"
(''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'')
"How early hope turned to despair at dusk"
(''

'')
"A whale which touched London"
(''

'' leader)
"The whale they couldn't save"
(''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'')
"London's whale history: We weren’t always quite so sentimental"
(''

'')
"London Whale Rescue Photos from the Thames bank"
(blog)
"Lewis PR Whale Watch"
(blog)
"Matt cartoon"
(''

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

'')
"Navy denies killing Thames whale"
(''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'')
"Whale may live on — as a museum attraction"
(''

'')
Offcourse News Special
Selection of topical stories from the day a whale wandered into the Thames {{DEFAULTSORT:River Thames Whale 2006 animal deaths Wayward cetaceans 2006 in London

Whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

1995 animal births Individual wild animals