'Timmy', whale rescued after €1.5 million operation in Germany, found dead near Danish island
A humpback whale that was rescued two weeks ago in Germany after washing ashore has been found dead near an island in Denmark, authorities said on Saturday, according to AFP.
“It can now be confirmed that the humpback whale stranded near Anholt is the same whale that previously stranded in Germany and for which rescue attempts were made,” Jane Hansen, head of a division at the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, said in a statement.
The whale, nicknamed “Timmy” by the German press, was initially spotted stranded on a sandbar on March 23. After several failed attempts, the animal was finally put on a barge and released into the North Sea off Denmark on May 2.
The whale's carcass was first spotted on Thursday off the Danish island of Anholt in the Kattegat Sea between Sweden and Denmark, but authorities were initially unable to confirm that it was the same whale.
“Today's conditions made it possible for a local employee of the Danish Nature Agency to locate and retrieve a monitoring device that was still attached to the whale's back. The position and appearance of the device confirm that it is the same whale that had previously been observed and handled in German waters,” Hansen said.
She added that “at this time there are no concrete plans to remove the whale from the area or perform a necropsy, and at this time it is not considered a problem in the region.”
The Danish Environmental Protection Agency said that while it understands the “considerable public interest in this whale”, it advises people to keep their distance and not approach the animal.
“This is because the whale can carry diseases transmissible to humans and there is also the risk of an explosion,” the agency said, explaining that the decomposition process produces large amounts of gas.
In Germany, the whale was first spotted on a sandbar near the city of Lübeck on the German Baltic Sea coast, before it managed to break free, only to become stranded again several times.
Several rescue attempts failed, and the authorities had announced that they were abandoning the operation. Later, two wealthy entrepreneurs, Karin Walter-Mommert and Walter Gunz, stepped in to finance the rescue, the cost of which was estimated at 1.5 million euros.
The two came up with a plan considered by many to be improbable: lure the whale into a special barge filled with water and tow it back to its natural habitat.
Some experts criticized the privately funded rescue operation at the time, saying it only caused the animal more stress.
