Scientists’ analysis reveals English river’s ecosystem is thriving

It has been a highway, a sewer and was declared biologically dead in the 1950s but the River Thames is now a nursery for 138 baby seals, according to the first comprehensive seal pup count.

Scientists from the Zoological Society of London analysed photographs taken from light aircraft to identify and count harbour seal pups, which rest on sandbanks and creeks in the Thames downstream from London during the summer, shortly after they are born.