Last modified on Tue 11 May 2021 03.14 EDT
As crowds gathered along the banks of the Thames around Teddington weir to catch a glimpse of the little whale that had lost its way upriver, the mood gradually became tinged with sadness at the realisation that the baby minke would probably never make it back out to sea.
The calf had first got stranded on Richmond lock’s boat rollers on Sunday evening. It was finally freed by rescue teams around 1am but wriggled free from the inflatable rescue raft and went missing, before being spotted again in Teddington late on Monday morning.
A small whale has been freed after it became stranded in the River Thames on Sunday evening. Crowds gathered at Richmond Lock and Weir after the whale, believed to be a Minke and between three to four metres long, became stuck on the lock’s boat rollers at around 7pm. Footage posted from the scene showed the whale finally being freed at about 1am, however it’s whereabouts are currently unknown. Videos showed the sea mammal being hosed down by a man believed to be a Port of London Authority (PLA) staffer, while a vet performed a check-up at the river’s edge, before the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) arrived at the scene to the cheers of onlookers around 9pm.
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The mink whale that became stranded in the Thames near Teddington Lock on Sunday evening (May 9) is not likely to survive and may have to be euthanised, experts have said. Despite a rescue attempt succeeding in getting the whale freed from the lock, the prognosis reportedly looks bleak for its survival and return to the sea. Vets were expected to carry out health checks on the whale Monday afternoon to assess its state after it swam far inland in the Thames away from its natural habitat in the sea. Dan Jarvis, welfare development and field support officer at the British Divers Marine Life Rescue service, said the veterinarian will carry out a health assessment on the whale.