The BBC has live video too, though you can't see much at the mo.
*rushes outside*
Poor guy.
I can't imagine that water's very pleasant to be in.
Not when Pleggy's finished with it...
Oooh - they eat cephalopods. Strapless ones.
The poor thing!
Does this make Charles the Prince of Whales?
Well, somebody had to say it...
*spouts indignantly*
Apparently, the Thames is much cleaner than it used to be - you get porpoises in it these days, at least allegedly.
The whale does keep attempting to beach itself, which means this touching tale of fluvial visitation may end in tragedy. With a powerful downward thrust, however, it might make it to the turbine hall of the Tate Modern, which can then be filled with water to create a cozy but well-appointed home, with gift shop.
Don't beach yourself whaley!
It's way past Tate Modern already, MH. I missed it, but colleagues tell me that a dolphin (could have been a porpoise) was regularly visible from Bankside pubs last year (nobody pointed it out to me!!). The Thames is now pretty clean, though it looks brown because the tidal action throws up the mud. There is a special boat called the 'Thames Bubbler' which sails up and down aerating the water, though apparently without actual bubbles. When I was in an office directly overlooking the river, I saw cormorants on many occasions.
Non-bubbling bubbles. Sure.
Yeah, come on Pleggy! I was born at night, but not last night!
Sheesh!
Last reports have it heading downstream again which is good ... as if it beached the authorities might have had to blow it up
Whaley has crashed into an empty boat and suffered slight bleeding, apparently.
They are trying to shoo it downstream now.
Whaley has crashed into an empty boat and suffered slight bleeding, apparently.
Does anybody know, and this is quite important, whether it attempted to sex it up?
It has been suggested elsewhere that this is the first rumbling of a coordinated terrorist attack. Soon this whale will be joined by others, and they will steam up the Thames, protected by an aura of lovability. When they reach a strategic location, their robotic whale bodies will split open, disgorging hordes of Brazilian electricians to bamboozle the Police.
They are the outlaw José whales.
You posted that just to prove the existence of the magic hubbley bubbley boat of which you spoke.
Crafty.
I laugh in the face of fear, and tweak the nose of the Dreadful Spindly Killer Fish!"
Thank you Darling.
Killer fish and Bottlenose whale, together in the Thames.
FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
FINISH HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM!
Pity there's no more podcast.
I drive the Thames Bubbler
To aerate the fine friendly fish
Surprised to find whale blubberer
Looking for fishy knish
While "The London Whale" might make a fine name for a pub, this giant beauty must have a name.
I vote for The Squidnunc Kid.
Roodon Bottlebutt Smythe-Blowhole, Esq.
Moby!
Lord Planktonton
"Legs" Cholmondeley.
Flibberty Ambergris Muwhacka Squeakmeyer St. John, Royal Guardsman of the Thames
Muckfilter McCoughsalot
Poor lost whale. I walked from Battersea Bridge to London Bridge and back hoping to spot him, but he hid from me. I hope he makes it back home.
Ah-oooh - whalewharfs of London.
Did anyone find the falling flowerpot?
If this whale is not saved, I want blood. Tony Blair's head on Traitor's Gate would just about suffice. What is a government for if not protecting the innocent?
fish tick that was terrible! hehe.
Tharshee
Give not thyself up, then, to fire, lest it invert thee, deaden thee; as for the time it did me. There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness.
*blink* *blink*
Sssssoooooo . . how's the whale doing?
It's having a whale of a time. For all intents and porpoises......
Whale, oh whale, where have you been?
"I've been to London to look at the queen."
Whale, oh whale, what did you there?
"I munched on some Monkeys and spit out the hair."
And did those flukes in winter time
glide within England's river brown?
And was the bottlenose of God
to Foyle's famous bookstore bound?
Whale, oh whale
Since you seem to have taken a wrong turn
Could you please do me a favor
Try and trap in your insides
That woman with the golden hair and pale skin
And bring her safe and sound
To this side of the old pond
Dearest Whale,
What have you done
To be sent so far up the river?
I say bust a move on the open sea
Party on whale dude! and give'r!
Oh, a fellow gets so tired
of swimming in the sea!
Perhaps I'll run aground
just to look around
at landlubber felciity!
Those ashore
may do far more
than have crumpets with their tea,
though I'm not a lad
who would be glad
to watch the antics of Prince Charley!
At London Yard I rose to spout at Blackwall Point I sounded
At the Isle of Dogs I bumped a boat, my senses all confounded
Heard the bells of Greenwich chiming, flow, sweet river, flow
All the time my heart was pining, sweet Thames, flow softly
Limehouse Reach I made sonar clicks, flow, sweet river, flow
To tell my mum about my fix, sweet Thames, flow softlyApologies
May the tide that ebbs down the darkling Thames never bring you misery;
May the Narwhal's horn sound to greet the morn wherever you may be.
))) to ye, Abiezer_Coppe!!!
I went to Battersea Bridge today just in time to see the whale, on its sling between two pontoons, being moved away from shore between two dinghies. Apparently the dinghies will take it as far as Greenwich, and they then hope to move the whale to a barge to take him/her out to sea. Here's hoping they make it.
*applause*
Flashy: That's the trouble with swimmers. Did they move the whale on a LuvPad?
Oh, wait. Those are different threads.
RIP, poor whale.
.
Whale swimming
hallucinating like the man on the bridge
unable to see
the people thronging on shore
unable to help.
Not knowing if your swimming was joyful
or the delerious movement of death approaching,
you are gone now
but will be remembered forever by children held aloft beside the river.
The water now changed
the possibility of mermaids and sea monsters
alive again, displacing men in vans
and subway bombs.
Goodbye whale.
*
:(
sad
farewhale.
that was lovely, moneyjane
yes it was. beautiful.
Thank you. It seems I got a soft spot for hurricane dolphins and London whales. This story reminded me of a cougar once rumoured to have left the North Shore, and, crossing the Lion's Gate Bridge into downtown Vancouver, padding down the middle of the street at four in the morning. I wonder if animals recognize our buildings and streets as our trees and paths.
sorry...html craziness..
*blubbers*
Lovely, mj - thanks.
Hey, but I'm doleful, willow willow whaley...
Poor whale
))) to moneyjane !!!.
very nice, mj
How fine to see, I had once said,
On Thames' banks, Leviathan dead.
Now a beast dies, yet the Beast remains.
Wild ocean heart falters in the chartered Thames.
Here in London, under Mammon's throne,
We swim upstream awhile, then die alone.
I haveto say, this whole episode is one of the saddest things I've ever seen. I nearly burst into tears when I found out whaley had died.
Fuck.
))), Abiezar!
He never meant to view the London shore
though he swam forty miles upstream
far from his pod, and all alone
in what seemed like a fevered dream
By then he wasn't feeling very fit
for, chancing on a single boat
he'd blundered into it --
a bulk seen from from below, afloat --
he'd wanted it to be another whale.
He was dreadfully tired of swimming alone
almost grounding himself, as if to lie down
out of the water so silted and brown
He didn't know that people watched him
along the banks and on TV
he only knew he was a whale
who wanted to swim free
He may not have died with his family about, but he didn't die alone. A small blessing.
It's just like those yokels to name their whale after some has-been techno artist. These people won't stop until the whole world is one big dance party. GOD THEY MAKE ME SO MAD.
YEAH. If I have to dance, I don't want to be party to their revolution.
thump*chicka*thump*chicka*thump*chicka*thump*chicka*thump*chicka*thump*chicka*thump*chicka*thump*chicka*thump*chicka*thump*chicka*
Go whaley! Find your people!
There's a whale in New York harbour!
Lucky New York Monkeys get all the fun. It's a MINKE whale.
Hope the big fella's OK.
Mega-squeee!
get it out! get it out! get it out!
MinkeFilter!
Abiezer FTW!
"My main concern is not what it is doing but simply why it is here," Durham said in a telephone interview.
Well, duh, he probably read the plaque!
There's a NEW Colossus in town, baby!
The Post had him named Murky.
Sludgie was better.
Bye Sludgie.
.
More info here."With everything that's happened after the Virginia shootings, we came here rooting for the whale, just for something good to happen," said Debra Clarke, 36, a personal organizer from Harlem. "But it turns out these are days of tears."
*sigh*
Poor Sludgie.
why did you go
little Sludgie?
you forgot to shut
your big eyes.
where did you go?
like baby whales
are all the leaves
which clog in the drains.
baby whales who
are called spring,
is what we stroke
maybe swimming?
do you know? or maybe did
something go away
ever so quietly
when we weren't looking.
(Apologies to e.e.)
The whale harkens back to far different era. If 130 years old, it would have been born in 1877.
Jeez, the poor feller probably thought he'd be OK when people stopped using his friends to make corsets!
So Nick, you're saying next time there's a whale in the Thames we send in the Inuit?
And what's with this double post posting in a thread/on the front page stuff, anyhow?
double postposting in a thread/on the front page stuff, anyhow?