Well Sky News broke the story when they went live to their Skycopter (i.e. a helicopter) sometime around midday today. A whale was in the River Thames in central London.
After some initial confusion about the species, it was eventually confirmed to be a northern bottle nosed whale. So come lunchtime, I just had to go and see if I could see it. Sky News, who went totally over to covering the mammal’s position, had said that it was near the Tate Britain. But it was still moving, so I got off the tube at Westminster and started walking. And then walked some more.
The fact that there was no sign of a helicopter (providing Sky with the footage) meant that it was not close. On down the river I walked until finally, having nearly given up, I reached the bank near Chelsea opposite Battersea Park.
It’s actually quite hard to spot a whale from the riverbank because you lose sight of it between it surfacing. Although a number of small craft were keeping nearby to ensure river traffic stayed clear, you just had to keep looking until it surfaced.
There is something wonderful about cetaceans, and this was certainly bringing out the crowds. The road along the riverbank had completely clogged up by the time I eventually had to leave – well it was my lunch hour and I was already late.
Unfortunately, the only camera I had about my person was a disposable, and without a zoom of any description, it was pretty useless. The professionals who surrounded me were having enough problems with their enormous zoom lenses.
Was it worthwhile? Absolutely. You get few enough chances to see whales, so when one comes to town, I had to go.
Sadly, it remains uncertain whether the story will end in good news. It seems to be notoriously hard to persuade these creatures to turn around and head back towards the sea. As I write, there are reports that it’s been spotted somewhere close to Greenwich which suggests that it’s heading in the right direction back towards the Thames estuary and the sea. But as night has fallen, nobody really knows where it is. I suspect that Sky will have its helicopter back in the air tomorrow morning searching for the animal.