Philip Dulian/DPA/AFP
The whale, named “Timmy”, was initially found stranded on a sandbar. After several failed rescue attempts, she was eventually placed on a barge and released into the North Sea.
A humpback whale that had been the target of a rescue in Germany two weeks ago, after having run aground in that country, he was found dead next to a Danish island, authorities announced this Saturday.
“We can now confirm that the humpback whale stranded near Anholt is the same which had previously run aground in Germany and was the target of rescue attempts,” he said. Jane Hansenhead of division at the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, in a statement sent to AFP.
The whale, named “Timmy” by German media, she was initially spotted stuck on a sandbar on March 23. After several failed attempts, she was eventually placed on a barge and released into the North Sea off Denmark on May 2.
The carcass was first sighted on Thursday off the Danish island of Anholt, in the Kattegat Strait, between Sweden and Denmark, but authorities were unable to immediately confirm that it was the same animal.
“Today’s conditions allowed a local Danish Nature Agency employee to locate and retrieve a tracking device that remained attached to the whale’s back,” Hansen said.
“The position and appearance of the device confirm that it is the same whale that had previously been observed and intervened in German waters”.
Hansen added that, “At this time, there are no concrete plans to remove the whale from the area nor to perform a necropsy, and is currently not considered to pose a problem in the area.”
Risk of “explosion”
The Danish Environmental Protection Agency said that while it understands “the considerable public interest in this particular whale,” people should keep a safe distance and refrain from approaching the animal.
“This is because the whale can carry diseases likely to be transmitted to humans, There may also be a risk of explosion”, since decomposition generates large volumes of gases.
The whale’s fate was closely watched by the German public for weeks after first running aground on March 23. The animal was initially spotted on a sandbar near Lübeck on Germany’s Baltic coast before managing to free itself, but then became trapped again several times.
Several rescue attempts failedand the authorities even announced that they would give up. It was then that two wealthy businessmenKarin Walter-Mommert and Walter Gunz, intervened to finance the rescuewhose cost was estimated at R$1.5 million.
The plan they presented was seen by many as a remote hypothesis: take the whale to enter the water-filled hold of a special barge and tow it back to its natural habitat.
Some experts criticized the rescue plan at the time financed by private parties, arguing that only would cause more suffering to the animall.
To BackhausMinister of the Environment for the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the whale first encountered difficulties, said that its death should make people “take the protection of nature even more seriouslythe preservation of species and climate change”.
Backhaus, who argues that lessons should be learned from this casesaid he wanted to talk to the Danish authorities about what will be done with the animal — and about the private sector that tried to save the whale.
