People have been urged to stay away from a dolphin spotted in the River Thames.
The common dolphin had been seen several times near Putney Bridge, south-west London, on Thursday, and had appeared to be “struggling with the tide”, but had not been seen since.
British Divers Marine Life Rescue said it was monitoring the dolphin and asked for people to get in touch if they saw it over the coming days.
Julia Cable, the operations director at the charity, said: “It was still in the area throughout [Thursday] evening but its behaviour wasn’t really changing so we didn’t continue monitoring it too late.
“It’s too far really for a dolphin to be up the river. We do get them up there, this was a solitary one.
“It wasn’t really moving very far, it did appear to be struggling with the tide.”
She added: “Our hope is that it’s found its way to a more sensible location out towards Thames estuary.”
If the dolphin was still in the river, the charity said it would be unable to rescue it.
“There’s no way we can actually physically move it unless it were to strand,” she said. “All we can do is monitor it, check its behaviour and do our best to ensure everybody out on the river is aware that the dolphin is there and that they keep away from it.
“The worst thing is if people start going up to it, it could disorient it more.
“They’re used to being out in open water. With all of the noise on the river going on, for an animal, it’s very confusing.”
Source: theguardian.com
