How the world's media reported this -
The Sunday Times January 22, 2006
Global reaction: World wallows in giant’s plight
Daniel Foggo
THE plight of the stranded whale was flashed around the world yesterday as millions took a keen interest in the desperate attempt to rescue it. The incongruity of a behemoth cruising through the heart of a great city gripped television viewers and stretched newspaper headline writers to the limit.
“Whale of a good show in London”, reported the Los Angeles Times. “New Prince of Whales — thar she blows!” countered the New York Post. Even The New York Times soberly offered: “Mysterious visitor creates new ripples on Thames”.
Unable to resist impressing New Yorkers with its ability to put the whale incident into the context of London’s 2,000 years of colourful history, The New York Times went on: “Of course, London’s great stream is no stranger to the bizarre and fascinating. There have been bodies hung from bridges, seals and porpoises in the water and even a piranha that fell from the sky when a seagull dropped it onto a boat.”
La Vanguardia, the Spanish daily, ran the headline “A whale visits Big Ben” next to a large picture of the animal’s fin cruising past parliament. Other Spanish newspapers used the photograph with similar prominence.
In France a television announcer conceded, with more than a tinge of envy in his voice, that such an impressive marine mammal had never, sadly, been sighted in the Seine .
In Australia, Victoria’s Sunday Herald Sun warned “Whale of a time may end in tears”, presciently foreshadowing yesterday’s unsuccessful rescue.
Susan Blackmore, an expert in the psychology of ideas, explained why the London whale had become an international phenomenon. “There is a very deep affinity between humans and whales because they are one of the very few animals that can imitate,” she said. “They copy each other, which results in the amazing songs they sing underwater, but that ability is very rare in the animal world and we are drawn to it.”
Naomi Rose, who tried to rehabilitate Keiko, a captive killer whale that starred in the Free Willy films, said whales hold an enduring fascination because they are “intelligent and social yet inhabit a world where we are utterly out of our element”.
Among the whaling nations coverage of the London visitor was conspicuous by its absence. The animal’s struggle to regain the safety of open water left Japan and Norway cold.
Kyodo, Japan’s domestic news service, failed to give the whale’s exertions even a mention.
In Norway, where whales are also regarded foremost as a source of income, there was no interest in the British obsession with rescuing the lost mammal.
Instead the Aftensposten newspaper concentrated on the travails of Rune Gjeldnes, the Antarctic explorer, who yesterday found that he had lost one of his skis.
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The Sunday Times January 22, 2006
London's whale history: We weren’t always quite so sentimental
Jonathan Leake, Environment Editor
THE rescue operation mounted for the Thames whale — and the worldwide sympathy it aroused — highlights a remarkable change of sentiment towards the creatures since the last time such a large one was seen in the Thames more than 40 years ago. On that occasion the whale was declared dangerous and left to die.
Yesterday’s thwarted rescue was masterminded by a small group of volunteers, the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), who came into existence after an epidemic of distemper hit seal colonies in the Wash, off East Anglia, 18 years ago. Since then the charity has quietly got on with the business of saving stranded whales, dolphins and other creatures along Britain’s coasts.
The founder of the group is Alan Knight, a 52-year-old former entrepreneur who made scientific instruments and was involved in the 1988 rescue of seals. For 11 years he ran the organisation on a part-time basis; he now runs it full time and is also involved with rescuing bears in India.
The BDMLR has now built up a network of 3,000 volunteer divers, boat handlers and other experts.
Whales have swum up the Thames to London many times over the years — but never before to such support and sympathy. The last time such a large whale ventured so far upstream was in 1961 when a 16ft minke whale was spotted around Kew Bridge.
On that occasion the creature was regarded as dangerous after overturning a dinghy and drowning a man.
Instead of being rescued, the whale was followed by police launches who warned people to keep clear until it died.
Historically, whales have had an even tougher time.
London in the 17th century, for example, was home to a flourishing whaling industry that killed tens of thousands of animals a year simply to extract their oil for lighting.
Barrels of whale oil were placed around the streets and lit each night — winning the city a reputation as one of the best lit in Europe.
Alex Werner, a curator at the Museum of London who has researched London’s whaling history, found that fleets were sent to Greenland, the south Atlantic and the Pacific. “Killing whales brought untold wealth back to the city,” he said.
It meant that when the occasional whale swam up the Thames, Londoners were far less sympathetic than now.
One of the earliest sightings was in 1240 when chroniclers recorded that a “beast of prodigious size” had swum under London Bridge. The reaction of the populace was to chase it upstream and harpoon it to death.
On September 2, 1658, another large whale appeared in the aftermath of a great storm. Dr Howell, a chronicler of the time, wrote in his
Ancient and Present State of England how “there came up the Thames as far as Greenwich a whale of very great length and bigness”. It, too, was harpooned.
Such records suggest that whales used to appear in the Thames reasonably often in the days before industrial whaling decimated their populations. Nowadays such visits are a rarity — there are just far fewer whales in the oceans.
However, whales have often visited other rivers around Britain. In 2003 the body of a 15ft minke whale was found near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire — about 60 miles from the sea — after it had swum along the Humber and entered the Trent.
The last time there was a similar level of interest in the fate of a stricken whale was in 1997 when a 40ft sperm whale became stranded in the Firth of Forth 10 miles upstream of the road and rail bridges. The creature spent two weeks struggling to find a way out.
Recently rescue groups have begun seeking better ways to respond to such strandings. A report by James Barnett, the BDMLR’s veterinary director, said that with 40 cetaceans — porpoises, dolphins and whales — being stranded each year around Britain, there was a risk that some rescues could prolong their suffering.
Barnett’s view is that animals like the Thames whale would stand a better chance of survival if they could be rehabilitated and restored to health in a dedicated facility.
He concludes that the cost and manpower needed are beyond the BDMLR in its current voluntary form.
A rescue team of medics and vets moved the whale that has been trapped in the River Thames in a bid to take it back out to sea.
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Thousands of people line London's bridges to watch the attampted whale rescue.
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Whale is delicately lifted onto the barge.
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