Benny the beluga whale forces firework display postponement

Council in Kent told that disturbing the whale would breach wildlife law

Kevin Rawlinson

Fri 19 Oct 2018 22.18 BSTLast modified on Fri 19 Oct 2018 22.39 BST

It has attracted plenty of spectators during its stay. But Benny the lost beluga whale, who took up residence in the Thames last month, may end up leaving the crowds disappointed after it was announced that a fireworks display would have to be postponed to protect him.

About 15,000 people were expected to gather for the annual bonfire night celebrations in Gravesend, Kent, on 2 November to see a display set off from a barge on the river.

However, council officials said on Friday that they had been advised to put back the event until the whale, who was first sighted in the Thames more than three weeks ago, left the area.

“While we understand this is also disappointing to the thousands of residents and visitors who enjoy our fantastic fireworks display every year, we have to ensure our special visitor is kept safe and well,” said David Turner, the leader of Gravesham borough council.

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Beluga fever is tinged with sorrow for whale-watchers on Thames

The thrill of a once-in-a-lifetime sighting mingles with a fear that this story may not end well

Caroline Davies

Fri 28 Sep 2018 16.37 BSTLast modified on Fri 28 Sep 2018 17.30 BST

Grant Hazlehurst, a civil servant from Bromley, Kent has seen many whales. “Fin, sperm, Cuvier’s beaked, True’s beaked, sei, long-fin pilot …” most of them from his regular jaunts on a car ferry in the Bay of Biscay. “But I never thought I would see a beluga, not in the Thames,” he said. “So, I’m hoping.”

So were the two dozen or so others who, on Friday morning, gathered on a windy shore near Gravesend, scanning foam-flecked waves in anticipation that, for a fourth day, the beluga whale that has somehow got lost in the Thames, would show itself.

Two hours in and Bill, who had travelled from Somerset, had only managed to tick off a sparrowhawk. He had heard about the beluga on a birding app. “But I didn’t believe it. I was waiting for it to come up: ‘Correction. Albino porpoise,’” he said. Now he was here, and – ping – his alert went off: “Whale spotted, just west of the Ship and Lobster pub.” It was a couple of kilometres away. He was off at a trot. “I’m a happy man,” he said later, after managing to see it.

Peter Cartwright, was one of the first to spot it on Friday. “First you see this big melon head coming up, and then it rolls over. It’s just like a big white tyre,” said the counsellor from south-east London. He and his brother had, cunningly, split up and gone in different directions to maximise their chances. Was it exciting? “Absolutely. It’s a beluga,” he said.

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Seals, whales and porpoises regularly spotted in the Thames, survey reveals

A ten-year survey by the ZSL finds that marine life is thriving in the murky waters

By Victoria Ward

9:37AM BST 20 Aug 2015

Large marine animals, including seals, dolphins and whales, have become regular inhabitants of the River Thames, research has revealed.

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) said that over a ten-year period, more than 2,700 sightings had been reported.

It said that seals were the most common animal seen and were often spotted around from bridges around Westminster.

But most sightings of marine mammals were reported around the docks and wharfs of Canary Wharf than any area along the Thames Estuary in the past decade.

Some 1,080 harbour seals were reported, as well as 333 grey seals and 823 unknown types of seal.

A pod of eight harbour porpoises was spotted near Kew Gardens in 2009 and a pod of bottlenose dolphins visited Deptford in 2006.

Read on ...

Breeding ground sought of small Thames fish that smells of cucumber

There is a call-out to Londoners for volunteers to help scientists find out more about a rare species of British fish, the smelt (Osmersus eperlanus), which curiously smells like cucumbers. It is found in the Thames in central London.

The project by scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), funded by a grant of £97,800 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, will launch in March, with the aim of discovering where this silver-coloured fish breeds in the river.

Smelt are an important fish species; not only as a potential food source for other animals but because their presence indicates good health in an estuary.

In the Thames there is a small but significant breeding population, one of the few remaining in the country.

Joe Pecorelli, manager of the London's Rivers project at ZSL, says: “The Thames is London’s greatest wilderness, yet still there are many things we don’t know about life in the river.

“The fact that the smelt, a nationally rare fish, returned to the Thames 20 years ago after more than a hundred years’ absence is a good sign.

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Rare seahorse found in River Thames

Evidence of a colony of rare seahorses has been discovered in the Thames, the Environment Agency said.

The short-snouted seahorse (Hippocampus hippocampus), which grows up to 15cm (6 inches) is more commonly found in the waters of the Mediterranean and Canary Islands.

It has often been a visitor to coastal waters around Britain but the agency said it had never been found so far upriver.

The sightings during a routine fisheries survey at Greenwich suggest there may be permanent populations in the UK and that the seahorses, which mate for life after elaborate courtship rituals, may be breeding in the Thames.

Emma Barton, Environment Agency fisheries officer, said: "The seahorse we found was only 5cm (2 inches) long, a juvenile, suggesting that they may be breeding nearby.

"This is a really good sign that seahorse populations are not only increasing but spreading to locations where they haven't been seen before. We routinely survey the Thames at this time of year and this is a really exciting discovery."

The last sighting of seahorses in the Thames was much further down the river in Dagenham in 2008. They have not seen since.

The Thames has been reformed from a "biologically dead" river in the 1950s, as a result of sewage and industrial pollution, to a much cleaner waterway today.

Ms Barton added: "We hope that further improvements to water quality and habitat in the Thames will encourage more of these rare species to take up residence in the river."

http://news.uk.msn.com/environment/rare-seahorse-found-in-river-thames

Healthy Thames 'key for return of salmon'

Salmon in the Thames are more likely to be fish that have "strayed" from nearby rivers rather than a result of a multi-million pound restocking effort.

Researchers collected genetic data from returning fish, which suggested that habitat restoration was more effective than species re-introductions.

Lessons from this study, the team said, could be applied to rivers that the fish had disappeared from.

The findings will be published in the journal Bological Conservation.

"Traditionally, people - such as river owners and anglers - have wanted big fish swimming up their rivers," explained co-author Jamie Stevens from the University of Exeter.

"The easiest option has been to just restock those rivers with exogenous fish (from outside the river system).

"In the southern parts of Britain, the thing would have been to take fish from some of the big Scottish rivers, bring them down and dump them in the rivers rather than improving the riparian [river] habitat," he told BBC News.

'Local adaptations'
Dr Stevens and his team, in a previous paper, carried out a study of Atlantic salmon populations (Salmo salar) in northern Spain that suggested that stable populations developed genetic profiles that become definitive to a particular river system.

Some of the unique characteristics included local adaptation to the river system's water chemistry, temperature and run-time from sea to spawning ground.

"Almost certainly, most fish come with a vast amount of local adaptations which we really are only beginning to scratch the surface," he suggested.

"So as soon as you dump a big fish in a river than is not its native one, it is just not as fit."

In their paper, the team said evidence from Pacific restocking programmes showed that once restocking projects had run their course, the numbers dropped off quite quickly and the ones that did remain had "strayed" from nearby rivers. They were not fish that had be introduced from distant hatcheries.

"In a sense, this is what we believe we are seeing in the Thames study," Dr Stevens observed.

"Those fish that were put in the river were Scottish and Irish hatchery fish, and they were probably not suitable for an English chalk stream environment."

Straying from home
Historically, England's longest river had a "significant" salmon population, the researchers wrote.

"It is mentioned as far back as the Magna Carta (1215), and a substantial fishery existed on the river until the early 19th Century."

But, they added: "The industrial revolution and urbanisation of London led to increased levels of pollution in the river and the last record of a Thames salmon was made in 1833."

Since the late 1970s, there have been a number of attempts to re-introduce the species at a considerable cost. A 2003 paper estimated that £3m had been spent on efforts to establish a population in the Thames.

"Perhaps our paper shows that if your yardstick for showing recovery is the presence of Atlantic salmon then the best way to ensure that is to make sure that you get the environment right and just not dumping in a lot of exogenous fish," Dr Stevens suggested.

He explained that the presence of salmon in a river was important because the fish was an "indicator species".

"If you have large, healthy fish running to sea, and then you have a proportion of those coming back as even larger healthy adults that are ready to spawn and mate, you know that things are working well within that river.

"We then know that we have good gravels, good oxygenation within the water, a good range of [food sources], clean water and a good river flow.

"Everything within the system's pyramid has to be right in order for the apex predator to be present."

When asked whether the findings suggested that conservation funds and efforts would be better invested in habitat restoration than focusing on a single species, he said it was probably true when it came to salmon habitats.

"It is about getting the river system right then the fish will do the rest, really," he said.

"Salmon are good at homing, but the good news is that they are not perfect and a percentage will stray.

"That straying means that the species as a whole has the opportunity to explore new avenues when they become available."
By Mark Kinver Environment reporter, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/14719203

I caught a piranha ...in the Thames

AN angler told yesterday how he caught a piranha - in the RIVER THAMES.
Richard Salmon, 38, was trying to catch chub when he reeled in the razor-toothed beastie - fabled as the world's most fearsome freshwater fish. He said: "I didn't expect to come eye to eye with a piranha."

The tropical fish, native to South America, is thought to have been dumped in the Thames by a collector with a heated aquarium. Graphic artist Richard knew it wouldn't survive long if he threw it back in the cool river. He said: "I took it home so I could prove to my pals I caught a piranha from the Thames.

"I normally fish for pike so I'm used to dealing with sharp teeth. But it was very unnerving unhooking it." Richard caught the 4in specimen in Marlow, Bucks, opposite the famous Compleat Angler hotel.

Piranhas can grow to 18ins and strip flesh from prey in seconds. They are scaring movie fans in Kelly Brook's new film Piranha 3D. In June The Sun told how angler Derek Plum, 46, hooked a piranha in a pond near Folkestone, Kent.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3115001/I-caught-a-piranha-in-the-Thames.html?OTC-RSS&ATTR=News

Prehistoric bloodsucker in Thames

An ancient blood-sucking fish has been found in the Thames by a 13-year-old boy.

The sea lamprey, an eel-like creature with a sucker-shaped mouth surrounded by teeth, predates the dinosaurs.

But they only venture into fresh water to breed if it is very clean, which is why experts said Oscar Bridge's find is significant.

In the 1960s the Thames was so polluted scientists declared it "biologically extinct" after a survey.

Oscar was taking part in a sponsored clear-up of a riverbank near Fulham's Craven Cottage stadium when he made the discovery.

He said: "All of a sudden I saw this thing and thought, 'what's that?'

"I picked it up and it looked like an eel," he said.

"I did get a shock when I saw the mouth."

He added: "I really like animals - especially creepy ones like that."

What Oscar had found proved to be a 15.5in (40cm) long sea lamprey, one of the most ancient creatures on earth.

Like the shark and the crocodile, sea lampreys have barely changed over thousands of millennia.
The parasitic creature attaches its circular mouth to larger creatures before sucking out their insides.

Chris Coode is river programmes manager for Thames21, the charity that organised the clean-up.

He said: "We have only found one or two in the 15 years we have been cleaning up the Thames.
"The fact they are coming back is a really good sign.

"The Thames is now one of the cleanest city rivers in Europe."

He added: "The lamprey was dead, but it is not a bad thing - because they die immediately after spawning."

On Sunday lampreys were found in the River Wear, County Durham.

The fish was once considered a delicacy - and King Henry I, who lived in the 11th Century, was reputed to have died from eating too many.

However, Oscar said: "It absolutely stank - a horrible fishy smell."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8127483.stm