{"id":792622,"date":"2026-10-05T11:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T11:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/792622\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T11:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T11:38:11","slug":"lost-pilot-whales-were-spotted-in-the-thames-this-is-what-happened-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/792622\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost pilot whales were spotted in the Thames. This is what happened next\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

The River Thames might sometimes look bleak and murky but there are animals living in these waters. This includes several species of fish, such as\u00a0seabass<\/a>\u00a0and flounder, wading birds and sometimes even the occasional\u00a0seal<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0porpoise<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In late September, some rare visitors arrived in the tidal Thames near the town of Gravesend, east of London: a pod of long-finned\u00a0pilot whales<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A ship\u2019s pilot saw the whales (which are technically a species of dolphin) and reported them to the Port of London Authority (PLA) who also informed the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) and local authorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whales are beautiful but, given this isn\u2019t a normal place to see them, we are concerned for their welfare,\u201d said PLA in a\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0at the time. \u201cWe will continue to do all we can to keep them safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pod of long-finned\u00a0pilot whales was first seen near the town of Gravesend, east of London. Credit: Port of London Authority<\/p>\n

The experts kept a close eye on the whales and let boats know to be careful while sailing along the river. One of the pod appeared to be poorly and was no longer swimming with the group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When responders went to check on the animal, they found two pilot whales together. Sadly, one three-metre female had already died but the rescuers hoped they could help the survivor. \u201cThe live animal refloated on the incoming tide after dark and went out to deeper waters where it could rejoin the rest of the pod,\u201d said PLA in a later update.<\/p>\n

There were an estimated 20 pilot whales in the pod. Credit: Port of London Authority<\/p>\n

Pilot whales aren\u2019t meant to be in this environment so the experts wanted to encourage them back out to the open sea as quickly as they could. They did this by \u2018herding\u2019 them in the right direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cStarting near Sea Reach, the flotilla of eight boats stayed behind the pod slowly and carefully encouraging them to swim eastwards towards the North Sea,\u201d said PLA. \u201cAfter a 6-hour journey covering more than 20 nautical miles, with plenty of pauses for the whales and their calves to rest, the pod had reached the outer limits of the Thames Estuary.\u201d<\/p>\n

During this time, another whale seemed to be sick and separated itself from the group. It was later found washed up dead onshore.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thankfully, there was better news for the rest of the 20-something strong pod. After shepherding the animals back towards deeper waters, the PLA and BDMLR didn\u2019t see the pilot whales in the Thames Estuary again. This should mean the wanderers found their way back to sea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In its last update on the situation, the PLA said: \u201cwe are hopeful they made it out to the deeper water.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

More wildlife stories from around the world<\/p>\n

Top image: Pilot whales in the tidal. Credit: Thames Port of London Authority<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The River Thames might sometimes look bleak and murky but there are animals living in these waters. This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-792622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}