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The
white cetacean, which feeds on fish, squid and crabs, was first
spotted on Tuesday and surfaced near Gravesend, Kent on the
southern side of the estuary, television footage showed.
"We are surprised and a little saddened that it has resurfaced
again - we had hoped it had gone out to deeper waters and gone
out to where it should be," said Lucy Babey, head of science and
conservation at the ORCA charity.
The last sighting of Beluga whales in UK waters was in 2015 when
they were spotted off northeastern England near the
Northumberland coastline, but they left shortly afterwards.
Belugas, which can grow up to 5.5 meters (18 feet) long, spend
most of their time off the coasts of Alaska, Canada and Russia,
though they often travel great distances in search of food.
Babey said it was unclear why this one had lost its way and come
into the Thames, though it would be unlikely to have lost its
way due to storms or because it was following prey.
"The most likely scenario, which we are not going to know until
we can investigate this animal more, is that there is an
impairment to its navigation system," Babey said.
"If that navigation system is impaired or there is a lot of
disturbance to its environment, whether from natural causes or
man-made noise, the animal will not be able to navigate
correctly and can go off course."
The whale spotted in the Thames was clearly a mature beluga
whale, and possibly a female or a younger whale due to its size,
Babey said.
"It is a beluga - I can confirm that," she added.
In 2006, a northern bottle-nosed whale died after stranding
itself in the Thames.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Michael Holden and
Stephen Addison)
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