Volunteers from Sussex who tried desperately to save a northern bottle-nosed whale trapped in the Thames were issued with £300 parking fines for their troubles.

Members of British Divers Marine Life Rescue, based in Uckfield, spent two days in the media spotlight trying to get the 19ft mammal back to sea.

The female whale was seen floating past the Houses of Parliament on Friday, and rescuers said "it felt like a member of the family had gone" when it died on a barge on Saturday night.

The decision to move the stranded whale cost the group about £100,000.

However, during the rescue, their vehicles were issued with parking tickets by officers from Transport for London.

Marine medic Stephen Marsh was called to the scene on Friday afternoon after picking up a pontoon from the group's base in Regency Close, Uckfield.

Mr Marsh said: "The Metropolitan Police stopped traffic and gave us permission to park up on the embankment at Albert Bridge.

"But when we went back later on to rush to Greenwich, where the whale had again been spotted, we found traffic wardens giving us tickets.

"The whole of the world's media was focusing on this story but they wouldn't even halt traffic to help us get off the pavement."

The rescuers have since thanked the Metropolitan Police for all their support and Westminster City Council agreed to refund all of the parking fines the team collected.

The whale became stranded on a mudbank, strewn with broken glass and bits of metal, at lunchtime on Saturday.

The whale, an endangered species and believed to weigh about four tonnes, was then transferred to a waiting barge to take it to the North Sea.

Mr Marsh said: "We got as far as Tilbury Docks when it actually died. We had about two hours to go before we would have been in a suitable position to release it.

"It was very, very emotional. There were 12 of us medics with it and it was really, really upsetting."

The crew put all the lights out on the barge to preserve the whale's dignity as it passed away, with TV helicopters buzzing overhead.

Results of a post-mortem, to be released on Thursday, will hopefully answer what it was doing so far up the Thames.

Rescuers believe it could have been suffering from an infection that interfered with its sonar capabilities, helping it get lost.

They also hope another whale, seen at the mouth of the Thames on Friday morning, managed to escape.

Mr Marsh added: "It was a privilege to be that close to such a beautiful, large animal and to make contact with it. To look into its eyes and know that it could see your shape, and see it responding to touch and words is quite amazing.

"There was a massive outpouring of emotion when it finally died. We all thought we would cope but it felt like a member of the family had gone.

"But we don't believe this whale died in vain - it has refocused the world's attention on the plight of whales in general."

A registered charity, the British Divers Marine Life Rescue can be contacted on www.bdmlr.org.uk