Did you know that porpoises, seals and seahorses live in the Thames alongside cockney eels and smelt (the fish that smells of cucumber)?
Many of these amazing animals are born and raised in the river, or Mother Thames as we like to call her.
What may look like murky brown water is actually a river thriving with life, and ZSL is working to ensure it stays that way. Together with partners and volunteers we’re making great progress – from being declared biologically dead in the 1950s, the River Thames is now a hub of life thanks to dedicated conservation efforts.
The Thames needs all of us to ensure a future for its amazing wildlife. Join our #MotherThames campaign as we celebrate the secret wildlife in our capital city and work together to protect it.
We’d love to hear what #MotherThames means to you.
Share what you love about the River Thames - your thoughts, photos, drawings… anything you can think of – and join us in celebrating wonderful wildlife.
Share on social media using #MotherThames and tag us @officialZSL, or email us.
This free experience takes you on a journey below the surface of London's great river. Step up to our VR portal, put on your swim goggles and 'dive' into the Thames.
As you explore, you'll join ZSL's conservation team in discovering the incredible wildlife that lives below the surface. Every experience is different, so challenge your friends and family to see who can discover the most species. Make sure to keep an eye out for some surprises along the way!
Find the experience on the bank of the Thames outside One London Bridge. Just 5 minutes' walk from London Bridge station.
This experience is free and open to all. As a charity, we rely on donations for our wildlife-saving work. If you would like to support us there is a contactless card donation point at the experience, and all donations are greatly appreciated!
ZSL's Thames virtual reality experience, the first of its kind in the UK, was created by BYO and Somewhere Else using Timescope technology. The VR experience was supported by the Royal Bank of Canada.
We’d love to hear what #MotherThames means to you.
Share what you love about the River Thames - your thoughts, photos, drawings… anything you can think of – and join us in celebrating wonderful wildlife.
Share on social media using #MotherThames and tag us @officialZSL, or email us.
From helping monitor wildlife to simply buying a re-usable drinking bottle – there are so many ways that together we can protect this precious habitat for the future.
We rely on donations for our conservation work.
Whether you can help for a few hours, days or months, there are a number of projects for you to get involved with throughout the year.
Plastic waste often ends up in waterways such as the River Thames, where it’s harmful to wildlife.
Report your seal, porpoise and dolphin sightings and help us protect them.
We’d love to hear what #MotherThames means to you.
Share what you love about the River Thames - your thoughts, photos, drawings… anything you can think of – and join us in celebrating wonderful wildlife.
Share on social media using #MotherThames and tag us @officialZSL, or email us.
Wildlife photographers asked to submit underwater images of oysters to win competition.
Wildlife photographers across the UK are being challenged to capture underwater images of the rare European native oyster (Ostrea edulis), as we launch a national native oyster hunt to galvanise support for the species.
Suffering a 95% decline in population over the last 200 years due to historic overfishing, habitat loss, pollution and the introduction of diseases – images of the species in their natural habitat on the seabed are very rare.
Now, through the national Native Oyster Network - ran jointly with the University of Portsmouth (UoP), we are calling on the British and Irish public to help us gather visuals of the iconic native species.
Project managers hope that images and video generated through the competition will help to answer questions around the oysters’ recovery, including revealing if there are indeed any oyster reefs left and whether other endangered species like the spiny seahorse (Hippocampus guttulatus) or European eel (Anguilla anguilla) are associated with the habitat. The images will also be used by oyster conservationists to promote the importance of the humble mollusc.
Left undisturbed, oysters will settle on top of one another forming a 3-dimensional reef structure. Much like coral reef ecosystems in tropical seas, or trees in a forest, oysters grow a habitat in which other species thrive – creating marine mega cities in the form of an oyster reef. However, none are currently known to still exist in the UK and Ireland.
Judged by a panel of professional photographers; Tom Gilks, Picture Editor at BBC Wildlife Magazine, Tom Mason, professional wildlife photographer and Nikon Europe Optics Ambassador and oyster expert Dr Philine zu Ermgassen of the European Native Oyster Restoration Alliance (NORA) – the competition will run from 1st March through to 30th of September with the winners announced on December 1st 2020.
The winner will win a one-day advanced photography workshop hosted at ZSL with professional photographer and National Geographic Explorer, Dave Stevenson and a BSAC (British Sub-Aqua Club) diving membership including access to UK-wide training, a monthly magazine, insurance cover and discounts on dive holidays, kindly donated by BSAC. Runner-up prizes include a BSAC membership and a £100 voucher towards completing any PADI training also generously donated by the Oyster Diving Company, the UK’s premier PADI scuba diving and travel company.
Alison Debney, ZSL’s Senior Conservation Programme Manager said: “Throughout our restoration work – one of the barriers we’ve come up against is not having images of native oysters in the wild. Trying to explain the importance of a species to people when they’re only ever framed as a seafood dish – can be a struggle.
“Oysters provide enormous benefits in the form of ecosystem services; nurseries for wildlife, clean water and in abundance, removal of carbon from our environment into their shell to name a few. Whether you’re a diver, photographer, fisher or simply live near a coast – we need your help. The native oyster is a forgotten British treasure that needs the public’s support during this long road to recovery.”
On supporting the project BSAC Chief Exec Mary Tetley said: “We’re delighted to support the Zoological Society of London’s mission to galvanise support for the species and boost their restoration. The more we can do to help protect the UK’s precious waters, the better”.
Celine Gamble, ZSL’s Native Oyster Network Coordinator said: “Oysters are an essential part of coastal communities around the UK, helping to sustain them through means of a livelihood. Outside of these hubs however, very little is known about them. Our work would be halfway done if everyone could tell the difference between the pacific non-native oyster and our native oyster. We can’t simply let another vital British native species slip away.”
Marine Biologist and network co-founder Dr Joanne Preston based at UoP’s Institute of Marine Sciences said: “We desperately need to revive the lost cultural memory of our native oyster habitat – and what better way to do that then get the nation involved in a quest to find, document and celebrate the remnant oyster reefs in our coastal waters.”
Applicants will need to send their photographs (with a maximum of three images and/or three videos per entrant) to NativeOyster@zsl.org with their full name, contact details and location the photograph was taken. See the Native Oyster Network website for more information and full Terms & Conditions, which must be agreed to before entering the competition.
The oyster restoration work is part of our Mother Thames campaign, celebrating the incredible variety of life below the surface of the River Thames – which will culminate in the publication of the first-ever State of the Thames Report this summer.
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