The Thames River in London, England which is very famous, turned out to be more exciting than we thought. The river is inhabited by seahorses, eels, seals, and venomous sharks!
A survey conducted by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) revealed this information. This news is certainly surprising, considering that in 1957, the river in the British capital was declared 'biologically dead'.
Today, surprising creatures such as sharks, including tope types, starry smooth-hounds and spurdogs are found in this river. Spurdogs, slender sharks measuring about 58 cm and covered in venomous spines, can be found in deep water. The spines in front of the shark's two dorsal fins secrete a venom that can cause pain and swelling in humans.
While the tope shark, as quoted from CNN, Friday (12/11/2021) eats fish and crustaceans. This shark reaches 1.8 meters in length and weighs up to 48 kg, and has never launched an attack on a human without a reason. The smooth-hound starry shark, which can reach up to 1.2 meters in length and 11.3 kg in weight, mainly feeds on crustaceans, clams and mollusks.
However, the number of fish species found in tidal areas of rivers has shown a slight decline, and conservation scientists have warned that more research is needed to understand why.
This 346 km long river is home to more than 115 species of fish and 92 species of birds. ZSL warns that these species face the threat of pollution and climate change.
The Thames also provides local communities with drinking water, food, livelihoods and protection from coastal flooding. ZSL noted that climate change has increased the temperature of the Thames by an average of 0.2⁰C per year.
"This presents a worrying picture, when combined with sea level rise. Water levels have been increasing since monitoring began in 1911 in the tidal section of the Thames, rising at some point an average of 0.4 cm per year since 1990," ZSL warns. .
"As water and sea level temperatures continue to rise above historic baselines, estuarine wildlife will be severely affected, through changes in life cycles and species ranges," concludes ZSL.
