Whale found dead on banks of the river

17 September 2009

SAD END: The dead Humpback.

A HUMPBACK whale found dead on the banks of the River Thames is said to have died of dehydration.

The juvenile male humpback, which measured nearly 30 ft, was found washed up near the Dartford Bridge early last Saturday morning .

There were reports of a whale in the Thames last Thursday afternoon (10) but no further sightings were made until the animal was found by a Port of London Authority patrol boat.

A team of scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) then carried out a post-mortem examination of the huge animal at Denton Wharf in Gravesend.

The examination was undertaken as part of the Defra funded collaborative UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP), which is managed by ZSL.

Rob Deaville, CSIP project manager, said: "Preliminary results from the post-mortem examination indicate that it may have died as a result of starvation, but further tests are still pending and may provide additional information about what happened to this whale".

Although this is the first time that a humpback whale has been found in the Thames, a rare Northern Bottlenosed whale got lost and died on the shores at Cliffe in January 2006.

It was said to have died from severe dehydration, muscle damage and kidney problems after taking a wrong turn into the Thames estuary.

The last humpback whale found stranded around the UK coast line was in 2007 at Port Talbot in Wales.

Mr Deaville said there have only been 12 strandings of humpback whales in the UK in the last 20 years and that it is an 'incredibly unusual' for a humpback to appear in the area.

The majestic animals are normally found in the world's largest oceans, using summer feeding grounds in Polar waters and winter feeding grounds near the Tropics.

Mr Deaville added: "Although it's obviously a sad outcome in this instance, the post-mortem examination has given us a rare opportunity to examine a truly extraordinary animal at close quarters.

"Information gathered through examinations like these will hopefully help further our understanding of such animals and also help contribute to improving their conservation status."

A ZSL spokesperson said such post-mortem examinations can provide an insight into causes of death, diseases, environmental contaminant levels, reproductive patterns, diet and other aspects of the health of cetacean populations around our coasts.

lizzie.thornton@archant.co.uk