A whale's tale

A whale became stranded in a well-known river in the east of England recently but all efforts to save it failed and the animal died. But this was not the northern bottlenose whale that entered the river Thames to a mass of publicity, but a young sperm whale that became trapped on sandbanks in the river Humber, 200 km further north, which attracted little media attention. The contrast serves as a lesson in the power and focus of the media, but those involved in the attempts to rescue the Thames whale, and the subsequent analyses of why it died, hoped the media attention could help attract wider interest in these creatures and the many threats that still exist for them. Thousands of spectators lined the embankments and bridges in central London to catch a glimpse of the whale as it was ferried downstream. Millions more watched on television. The reaction marked a significant shift in popular sentiment. The press conference following the post-mortem examination carried out on the whale proved to be one of the biggest media events in a while. The investigation was led by Paul Jepson, a veterinary pathologist at the Zoological Society of London who specialises in examining the bodies of stranded marine mammals. Jepson, who was on the barge recruited to rescue the whale, said: " The odds were slim that we could successfully rescue this whale… We were worried about its condition ". But he, and many other researchers and conservationists, hoped that something positive could come from all the publicity. " Many children may remember seeing this northern bottlenose whale in London and in future I hope they may become marine mammal enthusiasts and conservationists. " The British efforts to rescue the Thames whale, and the Humber whale out of the media spotlight, also highlighted the country's difference in attitude to these creatures compared with that of whaling nations such as Japan. " It was refreshing to see so much compassion and so much concern for this one whale, after returning from the killing grounds of Antarctica where hundreds of whales are slaughtered, " said Paul Watson, a co-founder of Greenpeace. Hopes are raised that a visible stranding may raise awareness of the challenges facing cetaceans. Press gang: Journalists pack out a press conference at the Zoological Society of London last month to hear the pathologist's account of the cause of death of the …