Thames Supports Seals, Sharks, Seahorses; But Gains Since 1950s Threatened By Nitrates, Microplastic
Seahorses, eels, seals and sharks are living in the tidal Thames, according to the most comprehensive analysis of the waterway since it was declared biologically dead in the 1950s. But scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), who carried out the work, warn that the 95 miles of the tidal Thames is suffering from rising nitrate levels as a result of industrial runoff and sewage discharges. Water levels and temperature are also rising as a result of global heating.
On average, summer temperatures in the upper tidal Thames have been increasing by 0.19C a year since the turn of the century, the State of the Thames report said.
The scale of plastic pollution littering the tidal Thames, which stretches from below Teddington to Shoeburyness is also highlighted. As well as thousands of plastic bottles, wet wipes are a serious concern. One mound of wet wipes in Barnes has grown in height by 1.4 metres since 2014 and covers an area of 1,000 sq metres.
“These products, many of which contain plastic, are physically altering the foreshore along the Thames by creating large mounds of sediment densely bound together,” said the report. The density of microplastics found in the Thames was measured at 19.5 plastics per cubic metre, and microplastics flow down the river at a rate of up to 94,000 pieces per second, the report estimated.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/10/seahorses-and-sharks-living-in-river-thames-analysis-shows-aoe
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