{"id":187076,"date":"2025-06-15T19:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T19:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/187076\/"},"modified":"2025-06-15T19:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T19:07:08","slug":"common-dolphin-spotted-in-river-medway-near-rochester-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/187076\/","title":{"rendered":"Common dolphin spotted in River Medway, near Rochester Bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A dolphin has been spotted swimming in the River Medway.<\/p>\n<p>Stephanie Hillier captured pictures of the mammal surfacing the water near <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kentonline.co.uk\/medway\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rochester<\/a> Bridge yesterday (June 14) afternoon.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 961 715\" alt=\"There is only thought to be one. Picture: Stephanie Hillier\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"FDGBD8YZ266J8H7TEJCI.jpg\" data-ar=\"1.34\"\/>There is only thought to be one. Picture: Stephanie Hillier<\/p>\n<p>The 35-year-old said: \u201cI went specifically to look for it as I had seen some people mentioning it was there online.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am a dolphin enthusiast, so if I could see one on my doorstep, then I had to try.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere have been reports over the years of dolphins in the river, but every time I have missed them, so it was quite emotional to see one.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was not expecting to be so successful, but it was right there in the water. It was moving very fast and coming up erratically in different areas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I have wanted to see dolphins before, I have had to go to the south west or abroad, so to finally be able to see one in my hometown was really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 1183 844\" alt=\"It is not the first time a dolphin has been seen in the River Medway. Picture: Stephanie Hillier\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"VRUN52TDY6P6LNX0FO45.jpg\" data-ar=\"1.40\"\/>It is not the first time a dolphin has been seen in the River Medway. Picture: Stephanie Hillier<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 1762 1135\" alt=\"Stephanie saw the dolphin near Rochester Bridge. Picture: Stephanie Hillier\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"NBCNLKQJ0J5WBGN65MO6.jpg\" data-ar=\"1.55\"\/>Stephanie saw the dolphin near Rochester Bridge. Picture: Stephanie Hillier<\/p>\n<p>Stephanie, from Gillingham, said it is quite unusual for only one of the mammals to be found and thinks it could have become lost or separated from its pod.<\/p>\n<p>She has since warned people from trying to approach it if they see it in trouble and said to instead contact the British Divers Marine Life Rescue, whose volunteers are understood to be monitoring it.<\/p>\n<p>Eagle-eyed visitors first reported seeing the dolphin, which is thought to be a juvenile, in the river three days ago.<\/p>\n<p>Marcel Fernandes saw it in the water near Ship Lane, in Chatham, on Friday (June 13) evening.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cI heard there was a dolphin there the day before, so I went down at 6pm. I was very surprised to get as clear a shot as I did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 1182 800\" alt=\"Marcel saw the dolphin near Ship Lane, in Chatham. Picture: Marcel Fernandes\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"YDZ8OKLANLZOQR7X3I43.jpg\" data-ar=\"1.48\"\/>Marcel saw the dolphin near Ship Lane, in Chatham. Picture: Marcel Fernandes<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 1182 800\" alt=\"It was seen in the river at around 6pm on Friday. Picture: Marcel Fernandes\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"7D34VCTHZCQ74MPL1NIM.jpg\" data-ar=\"1.48\"\/>It was seen in the river at around 6pm on Friday. Picture: Marcel Fernandes<\/p>\n<p>It is not the first time dolphins have been seen in the River Medway.<\/p>\n<p>In October, around 20 to 30 of the animals were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kentonline.co.uk\/medway\/news\/dolphins-caught-on-video-gliding-through-river-315043\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">filmed gliding through the water<\/a> near Hoo.<\/p>\n<p>Last February, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kentonline.co.uk\/medway\/news\/dolphins-playing-in-river-caught-on-camera-301637\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">two of the creatures were seen<\/a> near the Command House pub in Chatham.<\/p>\n<p>Common dolphins can be found in waters all around the UK, but are more common in the southern and western coastal areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A dolphin has been spotted swimming in the River Medway. Stephanie Hillier captured pictures of the mammal surfacing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[933,609,607,18943,70,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-187076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-human-interest","10":"tag-medway","11":"tag-quirky","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114688953888601965","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}