If you all haven't heard already, late last week there was a whale in the Thames river in London. It seems that a Northern bottlenose whale got disoriented and swam up the river, passing by landmarks like Big Ben and Westminster Bridge and attracting thousands of onlookers. This is the first time since 1913 that a whale had been sighted in the Thames river, which at its depth of about 20-25 feet isn't deep enough for whales.

Rescue workers came immediately, trying to prevent the adolescent whale from beaching on the shallow banks of the river and trying to point her downstream, back to the ocean. No one knows how she got lost and came up the river, but various theories say predators, sonar from ships, illness or just got lost chasing a meal.

It was obvious to onlookers that the whale's health was deteriorating because of lack of food and the shallow waters. She was put upon a rescue barge so they could take her out to the deep see before her condition worsened. However, Saturday night 'Wally', as she was dubbed by the British press, suffered from convulsions and died.

So now comes the necropsy (which I guess is the same as an autopsy) to see what could have caused the whale to stray so far from deep water. After that is probably the blame game, since people need someone to blame for a tragedy like this. Number one on the list right now, the UK government, who people believe should have been monitoring the cetacean population around its waters in the first place. Wally's resting place will be the Natural History Museum, where her bones will be used for scientific research.

Rest in peace, Wally, and hopefully you found your way home to that big deep blue ocean in the sky...

Posted by Yano at January 24, 2006 10:17 AM