I can’t believe I was\u00a0up London yesterday and missed the whale,\u00a0though what can I say, I’m very sad to hear it died, I really do love animals, and it’s a real shame when they die like this! \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n
An expert is carrying out a post-mortem examination on a whale which died after becoming stranded in the River Thames.
\nDespite a seven hour rescue attempt, the 18ft (5m) northern bottle-nosed whale died on a barge which was trying to take it back to deep waters.<\/p>\nThe mammal suffered breathing problems and muscle spasms when it convulsed and died on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n
Paul Jepson, from the Zoological Society of London, hopes to find out why the animal became lost on Friday.<\/p>\n
Thousands of onlookers lined the river to watch as the mammal was put on a special pontoon at Battersea Bridge and then onto a barge on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Plan scaled down<\/strong><\/p>\n
Millions more around the world then watched the doomed rescue attempt on television.<\/p>\n
The whale was being taken to Shivering Sands off the north Kent coast, where rescuers had hoped to release it back into the sea.<\/p>\n
This plan had already been scaled down from an earlier one to transfer it to an “ocean-going vessel” and take it to deep water off the south coast.<\/p>\n
Earlier, naturalist and television presenter Terry Nutkins said the rescue operation was the wrong thing to do and that the animal needed space.<\/p>\n
He told BBC Radio Five Live: “It wouldn’t know what was happening, it was surrounded by boats… it would have been absolutely terrified as well as being stressed.<\/p>\n
“It was kept… like a goldfish in a bowl. So, it doesn’t surprise me that it’s died.”<\/p>\n
However, he later concluded he had “no doubts” the rescue operation had been the best way to try to save the whale.<\/p>\n
Tony Woodley, a director of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) group said that despite the sad outcome, the decision to move the whale – costing the group about \u00a3100,000 – was correct and they had given it their “best shot”.<\/p>\n
He said: “The organisation was under extreme pressure from other experts and the media and it is our opinion that we did the right thing for the whale.<\/p>\n
“We believe that if the whale would have been left how it was then it would have just slowly died and we don’t think that was the acceptable option to take.<\/p>\n
“We always knew that it was going to be risky. We did everything that we could and I am afraid that this time it was not a success.”<\/p>\n
He denied suggestions that the noise made by boats as the whale lay in the Thames caused its eventual death.<\/p>\n
Pod spotted<\/strong><\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for the Zoological Society of London said Mr Jepson was among the best qualified to carry out the post-mortem examination given his previous research work on stranded marine mammals.<\/p>\n
It will be carried out at Gravesend in Kent where the whale was unloaded and take about six hours.<\/p>\n
She added the results of the tests would be known on Wednesday or Thursday.<\/p>\n
The whale, which could weigh about four tonnes, was first spotted at on Friday morning.<\/p>\n
There were reports of a pod of whales in the Thames estuary earlier in the week, and it was possible the whale had become separated from this group.<\/p>\n
It was the first sighting of the endangered species in the Thames since records began in 1913.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n