April 1st 2008

Great excitement was created at the weekend when a whale was spotted swimming up the Manchester Ship Canal!

It was first spotted swimming under Runcorn Bridge on Sunday morning. Onlookers followed it along the shore past Old Quay bridge, but soon lost track of it as it moved onto a rural section of the waterway with no towpath.

Trippers aboard the Mersey Ferry "Royal Iris", on one of its regular trips along the canal, were able to enjoy the spectacle as the ship slowed down to a crawl as it passed the whale.

Later in the day the whale was seen passing the Lowry Centre at Salford Quays before swimming up the River Irwell through Manchester city centre.

As excited spectators rushed from bridge to bridge to catch a glimpse of the wayward whale, it began heading back downstream.

The whale is thought to have been a bottle-nosed whale about 15 feet long. Marine life experts think that the whale, which normally lives in deep water, may have become disorientated during the recent wintry weather.

Members of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue were monitoring the whale's progress but were not unduly concerned. "As the Ship Canal has deep water right to the sides there was no risk of the whale grounding itself, so we just waited for it to find its own way back to sea," explained rescue expert Joe Kerr. "Whales often swim up rivers in Britain, but we have never seen one on the Ship Canal. This must be the first!"

The whale was last spotted in the evening, near Ellesmere Port, swimming across a wide area known as Flair Pool, heading back towards the Mersey Estuary.