Bye bye Benny! Gravesend's most famous whale bids farewell

He came, we saw and now he's scarpered...Benny the Beluga whale has moved on from the Thames Estuary.

Experts believe he's swam back to his natural habitat in the arctic after making Gravesend his home for several months last year.

The mammal hit the headlines in September after first being spotted, drawing in crowds from all over as it foraged freely off the north Kent coast.

Now, the Port of London Authority who had been monitoring Benny are confident the mammal has gone back home, after he was last spotted in December.

They released this statement:

"Hydrophones have been placed in the water and can record noise produced by the whale - these have also not recorded any evidence of whale activity.

"As the fish that were likely to be the preferred food source for the whale migrate out of the estuary early in the year, we conclude that the whale has moved on elsewhere."

"We believe the Whale has swam home hopefully to the arctic where we’d be hoping he swam from day one"