London_Calling
Pleasant and unpatronising
"Northern Ocean" is interesting.
I saw someone swim the Thames today at Wapping
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Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
The 50 a year info was in a six part documentary on the river police based at Wapping. They included other details such as the seasonal nature of the deaths, and filmed several rescues, one of which was too late.
I'll go with the info in the documentary.
Ms T
Honey-coloured ramparts
Wasting police time? Bloody stupid thing to do.
cesare
shady's dreams ♥
I can't remember the exact figures that the guy on the tour gave us, but the number of incidents is very high. They're a very busy station.
cesare
shady's dreams ♥
I've just found this site which has lots of interesting information about the Marine Suppor Unit, and also says 50 deaths per year in the Thames (lots of those are suicides): http://www.the-river-thames.co.uk/police.htm
ExtraRefined
Better than you at everything you love
I've been for a swim in the Thames several times due to sculling incompetence. Usually mine, although I was once in a quad that got taken at full speed into one of the islands, breaking it in half 
He was only a bit upriver from the Humber Bridge. I was surprised it was possible to walk across the estuary at all - that far downriver, anyway. Aside from the mud and the notoriously strong currents, I'd have thought the dredged channel would have been too deep to walk across even on a neap tide.
DeadManWalking
Active Member
There was this article a few years back about bodies in the Thames,
and for the point about bodies washing up at a ceratin point, it's Isle of Dogs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2004/dec/15/features11.g2
and for the point about bodies washing up at a ceratin point, it's Isle of Dogs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2004/dec/15/features11.g2
pinkmonkey
2.4 hour party person
It depends which bit, I think, Port of London Authority manages the bit in town and I'd imagine it is forbidden.
Environment Agency is responsible for the rest of it.
El Jugs swam in the Thames lots as a kid, his grandfather had a boat with a bathing ladder. But only up in Lechlade nearer the source, where the water is clear.
Apparently the water's not bad in the Thames anymore. There was very little rubbish on all the beaches and silt that we saw cycling along it. The worst spot, strangely, was the lock at the entrance to the Limehouse basin. There was tons of plastic and stuff there. I'm not sure if it came from the Thames or one of the canals.
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
Cleanest city river in Europe, FACT.
I did read that there are salmon back in the Thames now, which is a testament to how well the river's been cleaned up - and to the decline or modernisation of the industries that used to pump all manner of shit into it. Thirty years ago it was so polluted that pretty much nothing except eels could survive, and if you fell in it was usually a stomach-pump job...
cesare
shady's dreams ♥
cesare
shady's dreams ♥
Apparently there's a seal whatever-the-noun-is (habitat? population?) a bit further up the Thames so I guess they swim up river quite a bit. The Wapping one seems to be around a lot, I wonder whether it's made a second home somewhere near.
Typical. Story of Thatcher's dispossession of the docklands. Massive redevelopment results in pied a terre's forcing out the local population.
How are you going to walk across if the water covers most people's heads?
Yeah, people seem to be under the impression the Thames is dirty when in fact it's quite clean.
cesare
shady's dreams ♥
Typical. Story of Thatcher's dispossession of the docklands. Massive redevelopment results in pied a terre's forcing out the local population.
They swim up our river, eating our swans
not-bono-ever
meh
teh salmon are stockies effectively - taken from the indigenous North Tyne migratory stock IIRC> there is some debate as to how effective they have been, bu there are reports that Salmon ave been seen upstream at locks and passes- whether these are the result f the stocking or "lost" wild ones has yet to be proved. There are brown trout in the thames, more succesful than the salmon, but again, the result of restocking
the Thames is pretty clean though - some work to do, but a far cry form the de facto biologically dead status of a few decades ago
the Thames is pretty clean though - some work to do, but a far cry form the de facto biologically dead status of a few decades ago
pinkmonkey
2.4 hour party person
It'll have come out of the Regents Canal and the River Lee.
It's not the water quality that's the problem if you try and swim in the river in town, it's the traffic and the currents that might get you.
Oswaldtwistle
Banned
I thought that was if you called them out uneccesarily. Presumably he didn't call them
This is one for Detective Boy, if he's passing....
Oh I'm not denying that.
But so is (for example) copying Scotts trip to the Antarctic, and there has recently been a whole telly series of that........
I'm torn here, on where we draw the lines of liberty......
I don't think swimming the Thames is necessarily a stupid thing to do. It's a challenge, and naturally enough some people want to take it up. Fair enough if they want to, and I don't think they should be prevented from doing so.
However, it's pretty irresponsible to do it without a back-up boat to pick you up if you get into difficulties, since a) you run a serious risk of drowning, and b) it's a major headache for the rescue services to find you in time if you get into difficulties.
It's much like yachting, climbing etc etc. Do it by all means, but you're an idiot if you don't take sensible safety precautions.
cesare
shady's dreams ♥
Also the other river traffic. The consequences could be dire for other people not just the person doing it.
Yes, that too. I doubt Thames Clippers would be very happy about having to swerve to avoid a swimmer or, worse, clean what's left of he/she off their hulls.
cesare
shady's dreams ♥
propller craft ... paddleships ... tall ships ... barges ... yachts
I never think about vessels being generally able to swerve, as such. Or just a minority
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