Marine welfare campaigners have rubbished suggestions Benny the Beluga could be airlifted from the Thames and flown over 1,000 miles to Iceland in an audacious rescue mission.

The whale, which was first spotted off Gravesend on Tuesday, September 25, has been delighting the crowds and media since it arrived on the river.

The mammal has been spotted many times between Cliffe and Shorne Marshes and has even made some friends when he was joined by two porpoises which were seen with him last weekend.

In recent days, speculation has grown that Benny could be lifted out of the water and flown to Iceland in what some are describing as a Free Willy-style rescue mission.

However, Stephen Marsh, operations manager for British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), the organisation responsible for Benny's welfare, has since slammed such suggestions.

He said: "We are looking at options but have no plans to lift the beluga in strops as we know that could be incredible stressful. We have no plans to fly it to Iceland.

"There are no facilities in the UK at Sea Life or otherwise, that have suitable pools for a beluga and bearing in mind what happened with Morgan, the killer whale rescued in the North Sea that sadly is now in captivity in Tenerife, the last thing we want is for this animal to get anywhere near a captive facility.

"At the moment we are looking at options, but the decision on what we can or can’t do will be determined by the beluga itself.

"We don’t intend catching it, so if it doesn’t strand we’d hope it would make its own way out to the North Sea where it would at least have a chance of making it back to its home waters.

"If it does strand then its future will be decided by an attending vet, who will have a lot of info from others who work with beluga in Canada.

"They would then decide which of the many options would be best for the beluga."

It emerged over the weekend that experts plan place equipment in the water to record its sounds to see if that will help them assess if it is happy and feeding and analyse its behaviour.

Belugas are also called white whales and their unusual colour makes them one of the most familiar and easily distinguishable of all the whales.