On 23 January 2006, a sea memal was spotted in the River Thames in centre London. “A northern bottle-nosed whale, which is 16-18ft long and is usually found in deep sea waters, has passed Parliament and is moving upsteam.” claimed the news. Thounds of spectators of London out of town wintnessed the envent. People realized that its not a miracle, it's a whale that went the wrong way. I remember a picture where one volunteer man went to near the animal and tried to herd the whale toward the shore. The man was standing on his feet in the revier and the water is only to his waist. Aparently the water was too shallow for this rare deep sea visitor of London.
The situation seems quite critical for this deep sea memal. However, the whale looked quite relaxed, healthy and happy with himself in Thames. There is no sign that the whale would back to where he belong by himself. After 36 hous of the Whale freely traveled in Thames, a rescure attempt was ready to start. All the rescurer were volunteers with good hearts who wanted to help the situation. Some of them are marine wildlife experts. A sling to lift the whale off the river bottom was moved into position. Then dozens of rescuers struggled to hold the huge whale still. Inflatable pontoons were attached to the sling to lift the whale up to a barge. The whale was lift up to half of the sky and onto the barge. Nearby rescuer splashed water on the whale’s body. Wet blankets were draped over its back. On the barge it is said that a general physical examination, blood tests and an ultrosound test were performed during the jorney. However, when the barge made slow progeress through east London, the poor whale’s condition got deteriorated and died just hours later.
The rescure attempt was failed. What would have done better in order to make it a success? What would happen if the rescure team did in a different way? Now almost one year later, we looked back and asked ourselves with these questions. If that sling for lifting was not used, it the whale was carried in water even on the barge, it would have been better condition for saving that whale. A well know children science book published in China for years the “100 thounds reasons of why” explains that Whale can live only in a certain deep of water. If a whale is pulled out of water, the pressure will damage its bone and therefore destroy the function of its organs. Not mentinging the deap sea mammal, just think of this way, if ask the question to a child with “how to keep a fish alive from the river to your home”, one probably would have an answer such as “carrying it in a barrel of water”, just as simple as that. I do not condemn anybody here. Those voluntary rescurer they do have a good heart. But the rescure plan was made with a normal knowledge mistake.
According to estimates published by the United states census bureau, the world population hit 6.5 billion on February 25, 2006, at 7:16 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. On October 18, 2012 at 4:36 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, the Earth will be home to 7 billion people. It’s important for us to realize that we need to learn to live with other creatures. Because only in that way, we could continusly live happily one generation after another. Our children’s children would see what we see today and hear what we here. Short-sighted actions need to be stoped to prevent from causing serious environment changing problems. We can only hope that by damaging the environment as little as possible, and gaining as much knowledge as we can, would there be a chance to lower the risks of such a rare visitor arriving at our cities. There would also be more success in keeping wild animals alive. To maintain our home – the earth a peaceful and joyful place for lives, it has been and will be our vision and our chanlenge. Let’s take this chanlenge and work on it.
