Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the circumstances that led to the stranding of a minke whale in the Thames in May 2021; and what steps he is taking to prevent future similar incidents from occurring.

During the recent stranding of a minke whale in the Thames, Defra officials worked closely with the Government-funded Cetacean Stranding Investigation Programme (CSIP). Unfortunately, due to the extremely poor condition of the whale, it was euthanised on welfare grounds.

CSIP investigates causes of death in stranded cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) and carried out a post-mortem on the minke whale. This indicated the female calf was in poor nutritional condition and was likely already in a very poor state of health when she entered the Thames. This is consistent with the whale being only a few months old and having been separated from her mother and/or social group. Follow-up work is ongoing to understand whether there were any significant underlying issues to explain her unusual presence in the Thames.

The UK Government plays a leading role championing the conservation and welfare of all cetaceans both in the UK and internationally. We recently let a 10-year contract for the continuation of the extremely important CSIP to help us improve our understanding of, and ability to tackle, key threats to cetaceans.