London Whale

What on earth has got into the British these days? A Northern Bottle Nosed Whale takes a wrong turn somewhere off Southend (arguably made a wrong turn to get there!!) and ends up in the Thames. After braving the Thames Barrier, it manages to swim all the way to Westminster before being terminated by some conservationists trying to ‘help’ it. Well, think about it for a minute. How did they know it needed help? Sure, whales are not normally spotted in the Thames, but neither is flowing traffic on the M25 and they do nothing about that. After all, a whale in water, how odd is that? It must be injured or ill was their cry. Again, it had managed to navigate quite a few obstacles quite successfully, so the ill angle is not immediately replete with evidence.

Did they ever consider the alternatives? Perhaps it was lonely and looking for company. Maybe it was exploring new areas of water. Could it have been lost after asking directions from an Essex blonde? Making a representation at parliament on effluent discharges? The short answer is, we don’t know and neither do the conservationists. Needless to say, it only started bleeding after they became involved (presumably from the ears). A well known daily paper printed a picture of a conservationist throwing stones at the whale to stop it coming too close to an area it might beach on. That’s about as sensible as throwing stones at children near railway lines and then complaining when one gets hit in the head.

This shows the stupidity of the response to this incident. Sure, in Japan the whale would have been harpooned without thought and turned into thousands of plates of sushi. At least its death would have served some purpose. Instead, a bunch of people who should know a lot better, decided it was ‘lost’. Apparently, it must have been ‘lost’ as it was far from its normal environment. Well, hauling it from the water hardly helped there and when Christopher Columbus found America, perhaps the same should have applied to him? In essence, the ‘rescuers’ killed the whale far more effectively than a harpoon.

However, the most interesting point here is the connection between this story and various other ones in the press. In other words, the need for people unbidden to stick their noses into other peoples business, forcing them to do as they are told, normally with terrible consequences. Smacking is one such issue and social workers should also feel some connection with the ‘rescuers’.