Denizen of the Thames?

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To the delighted Thames Water Authority, it was positive proof that stringent environmental controls in recent years had at last begun to pay off, turning the Thames into what may be the cleanest industrial river in the world. Last month, for the first time in 141 years, an 8-lb. 4-oz. adult female salmon was fished up by workers from the screens of a London power station. Presumably, it had migrated up the river to spawn in the now pristine waters. The prize was solemnly taken to the Natural History Museum, which declared it a genuine dead salmon, and scientists from the Ministry of Agriculture dutifully lent their own support to the finding. The discovery of the salmon—and its encouraging implications for the Thames—was announced recently at a huge press conference.

Next day, however, Lou Yallop, a local garage owner, said that he also recognized the fish. It had been in his freezer ever since he had caught it on a trip to Ireland last year. He had finally thawed it out for dinner, but his wife refused to cook it, fearing that it had gone bad. So he threw it into the river. "I thought it would be a laugh if some fisherman found it washed up somewhere, but I never expected all this fuss," says Yallop. "I know it is the same fish because it weighs about the same, and it was bruised in exactly the same place." At week's end Thames Water Authority officials were still staunchly insisting that the salmon was an authentic denizen of the Thames.