The male giant wren nicknamed Timmy probably died. This follows from the information of marine biologists from the German Oceanographic Museum, because its GPS transmitter has not provided any information for a long time. The device only works when the whale is near the surface and breathing, it does not work in deep waterwrites TASR according to Bild.
- The male giant wrasse Timmy is believed to have died, according to marine biologists.
- The GPS transmitter on Timmy’s body stopped transmitting for a long time when he inhaled.
- The weakened whale repeatedly got stuck in the shallows and rescue attempts exhausted it.
- The GPS device only tracked Timmy’s location, not his vital signs.
- The ship Fortuna B released Timmy in the open sea, then disappeared from monitoring.
“The whale was in a very weakened state. It was repeatedly stranded on the shallows and all attempts to save it weakened it. Most likely it did not have enough strength to swim in deep water and is no longer alive.” the museum said in its statement, according to Bild.
The GPS transmitter that was attached to Timmy’s body transmitted data that is not publicly available. Only members of the initiative, which advocated for its rescue, and the Ministry of the Environment of the federal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern have access to them. The private initiative claimed that the transmitter is supposed to provide information about the vital functions of the animal. According to marine experts, nothing like that is possible and the GPS transmitter should only provide location data.
Ship “Fortuna B” with special transport equipment Timmy’s tracking system has been disabled since Sunday evening and her whereabouts are unknown. Her captain gave the order to release Timmy on the high seas on Saturday morning.
An approximately four- to six-year-old male giant wrasse was first spotted in the Baltic Sea at the beginning of March. During approximately 60 days, it spent most of the time in shallow waters. Experts were skeptical about Timmy’s chances of survival.
