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London (dpa) - The London whale whose travel up the Thames and sad death captured the imagination of millions around the world could be given its final resting place in a museum, it emerged Monday.
The 6-metre northern bottle-nosed whale which perished late Saturday after a 100,000 pounds (172,000 dollars) rescue effort was a young adult female, the authorities said Monday.
Live television coverage by major news stations ensured that millions around the world followed the whale's battle to survive after the mammal appeared by the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben last Friday.
But despite all efforts to guide the distressed animal back to the open sea, it did not survive.
Experts discussing the future of the whale carcass said Monday that, under the U.K. Whale and Dolphin Stranding Scheme, any remains - the whale bones - would have to be offered to the Natural History Museum.
A spokeswoman for the museum in London said: "We are hoping to have them. Once the post-mortem is carried out we are usually asked if we want to take the specimen."
But Alan Knight, chairman of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue group in charge of the rescue effort, said the whale might be disposed of all together.
"It will probably go to a landfill site or be incinerated", he said. "There are concerns about zoonotic diseases which can be passed from animals to humans."
Meanwhile, it emerged Monday that Knight and his team found their clearly marked vehicles covered in parking fines of more than 300 pounds (516 dollars) on their return, it emerged Monday.
Knight said the cars were parked on metres by one of the bridges across the Thames and marked clearly as charity rescue vehicles.
In the race against time to save the mammal the volunteers jumped onto the rescue barge and did not return until seven hours later.
"It upset me a bit", Knight said Monday.
But Westminster council, whose traffic wardens were responsible for handing out the tickets, said Monday that the fines would be waived for all members of the team.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
