Shipping warning

Dead whale poses shipping threat

Sailors are being warned to be on the look-out for the body of a large dead whale seen floating in the Solent.
The 80ft (25m) creature poses a danger to vessels in one of Britain’s busiest shipping areas, coastguards say.

The mammal has been sighted off Stokes Bay, near Gosport, Hampshire, and about six miles (10km) away at Bembridge, the Isle of Wight’s most easterly point.

“We are concerned nobody hits it, although they should smell it someway off,” a spokesman said.

The Natural History Museum has preliminarily identified the creature on its size and image as a Fin Whale.

It says it may be interested in conducting a post-mortem examination once the body is washed ashore.

Raymond Brettle, 54, a retired airline operations manager, was out fishing in a dinghy on Sunday morning when he and a friend spotted the whale about half-a-mile away, thinking it was an upturned boat.

He told BBC News Online: “We thought, ‘oh crikey, we better go and take a look’, despite it being calm waters.

“So we motored across, it was about half-a-mile away, and realised it was a whale.”

Mr Brettle, of Harpenden, Hertfordshire, said he was not sure at first whether the mammal was dead.

Local warning

“I have to say we did hold back a little bit but it did look pretty bloated,” he said.

“The tide was drifting back towards Portsmouth but I don’t know whether when the tide turned it would have been dragged back out to sea.”

Solent coastguards said it was unusual to have the body of a whale in the Solent.

“We are more used to trees floating down the river at Lymington or 40ft containers in the Channel as hazards,” the spokesman said.

“We have put out a local navigation warning.

“The Receiver of Wreck has had preliminary discussions with local emergency planning officers in the area regarding possible courses of action once the whale comes ashore.”

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/hampshire/3527212.stm

Published: 2004/08/02 12:15:42 GMT

© BBC MMIV

Probably get Japanese and Norwegian whalers down there now, all desperate to scientifically test how many whales they can catch to save them dying off in the wild…

Flood.™