A spectacular and expensive rescue operation, which led to threats to the rescuers. It is not even known if the whale is alive.
The controversy did not stop on social media, in this case. Timmy turned into a national conflict in Germanydividing experts, authorities, environmentalists and public opinion.
Timmy is a humpback whale of 12 tons that was stranded for 4 weeks in the Baltic Sea, near Lübeck, in northern Germany.
A group of private entrepreneurs financed a rescue risky and very expensive (1.5 million euros) to transport the whale to open waters of the North Sea.
But this rescue was very controversial: several marine biologists and several environmental organizations warned that the whale was too weakened, what wouldn’t resist. In fact, moving her would even prolong her suffering.
The experts had forgotten about the matter about a month ago, because the animal would be sick and seriously injured.
Other animal advocates insisted that, as long as there was a chance of survival, the rescue should move forward.
The rescue really advanced. The German authorities gave up, thinking that rescue attempts would be useless – but then authorized this private (and million-dollar) initiative.
E they achieved it. Last Saturday, the whale was removed from the area where it was stranded and went to deeper waters, freed off the coast of Denmark.
The exact circumstances under which the animal was released into the sea remain somewhat unclear, describes the .
Now captain Martin Bocklage admits he is sorry – because the rescuers, who at first seemed like heroes, were labeled as animal abusers and targets of threats.
Martin, captain of the ferry tug (which was carrying Timmy), told the newspaper, without hesitation: “I might as well not have helped.”
And admit that you want to be left alone regarding the whale situation: “I don’t want to have to justify myself in Facebook comments. This is completely the wrong place.”
Timmy was rescued and equipped with a GPS transmitter. But since Tuesday the signal has been lost.
His health status is unknown. We don’t even know if she’s alive not even.
Precisely on Tuesday, experts from the German Oceanographic Museum declared that presume that the humpback whale he died. She would be too weak to swim for long due to extreme exhaustion.
Till Backhaus, Minister for the Environment of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, criticized this bailout: “I would have liked to have seen much more transparency in this case.” But the minister will not enter into “speculation” about the possible death of the marine mammal.
Nuno Teixeira da Silva, ZAP //
