London - A beluga whale was spotted earlier this week near barges in the River Thames near London, hundreds of
miles from its normal Arctic habitat, naturalists said.
"Can't believe I'm writing this, no joke - BELUGA in the
Thames off Coalhouse Fort," ecologist Dave Andrews wrote.
Video footage showed the white mammal surfacing in the
Thames near Gravesend, Kent.
"This is the most southerly sighting of a beluga we have
ever seen around these shores," Lucy Babey, head of science and
conservation at the ORCA charity, was quoted as saying by The
Mirror newspaper.
The last sighting in UK waters was in 2015 when they were
spotted off northeastern England near the Northumberland
coastline, but they left shortly afterwards, she added.
In 2006, a northern bottle-nosed whale died after stranding
itself in the Thames.