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AROUND THE WORLD 4: British Whale Rescue Attempt

Last week a northern bottle-nosed whale was spotted swimming in the river Thames, the river running through greater London. This was an unusual sighting, particularly because this type of whale is not usually found swimming in rivers.

Northern bottle-nosed whales live in the Atlantic Ocean and are often spotted off the coast of northern Britain and Ireland during the warmer months. The sighting of the whale in the Thames raised alarm bells as the whale became more and more distressed in the shallow water.

The 15ft-long whale became stranded in the river early Saturday morning and, in an attempt to rescue it, rescuers surrounded the whale and attached inflatable pontoons to support it. They then hoisted it on to a barge and brought it towards the deeper waters off the Kent coastline. Unfortunately, their attempts to keep the whale, which was later discovered to be a female, alive were in vain. By the time they had reached deeper waters, the whale had died.

Thousands of people gathered on the banks of the Thames to watch the attempted rescue. This is the first time since records began in 1913 that a whale has been sighted on the Thames.

--Written by Olivia Overman

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