We had a whale in London yesterday – according to Sky News, the first-ever whale in the Thames “since records began in 1913”.

I had never seen a whale before, and it was Friday afternoon after all, so I took some time off work and went to see it. (Once again I’m glad I cycle to work – I couldn’t have done it otherwise.) At the time BBC reported it as being near Battersea, so it would only take me around 20 minutes to get there. (The office is near Blackfriars.) Already at Vauxhall bridge I could hear helicopters, so I knew I wouldn’t have trouble finding it.

And indeed after Chelsea bridge there were crowds on both sides of the river (over a thousand I think) and three helicopters hovering overhead. Half a dozen boats of various shapes and sizes marked the spot: two police boats, one harbour master, one that seemed to be filled with either journalists or biologists since they were taking photos all the time, and a few others.

The whale itself was a northern bottle-nosed whale, according to the news – 5 metres and 7 tonnes. It looked small because of the distance, but its real size was more apparent when it got close to one of the smaller boats. It wasn’t particularly co-operative when it came to photographing. It only came up to the surface very briefly, showing only its back. So my pictures aren’t particularly good, I just took them to have some memento of this event. This is the first time I’ve seen a whale in the wild… eh… in nature… well, outside of a TV in any case!

I think the boats were mostly trying to discourage the whale from moving further upstream. The whale didn’t move very far during the half-hour or so that I watched it. Comments in the BBC say that it is now exhausted and disoriented, understandably. I hope it finds its way out, or is helped out soon.

The BBC has pictures and some facts and comments. There are also pictures on Flickr, including one of mine.