A humpback whale that was rescued after being stranded in Germany two weeks ago has been found dead near a Danish island, officials said Saturday.
“It can now be confirmed that the humpback whale that stranded near Anholt is the same whale that previously stranded in Germany and was the subject of a rescue operation,” Jan Hansen, head of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency department, said in a statement to AFP.
The whale, dubbed “Timmy” by German media, was originally found stuck on a sandbar on March 23. After several failed attempts, it was finally put into a barge and released into the North Sea near Denmark on May 2.
The carcass was first discovered on Thursday off the coast of the Danish island of Anholt in the Kattegat strait between Sweden and Denmark, but authorities were initially unable to confirm it was the same whale.
“Today’s situation allowed a local employee of the Danish Nature Service to locate and retrieve the tracking device that was still attached to the whale’s back,” Hansen said.
“The location and appearance of the device confirm that this is the same whale that has been previously observed and handled in German waters.”
Hansen added, “At this time, there are no specific plans to remove the whale from the area or conduct a necropsy, and it is not currently believed to cause a problem in the area.”
-“explosion” risk-
The Danish Environmental Protection Agency said that while it understood the “huge public interest in this whale”, people should keep a safe distance and not approach the whale.
“This is because whales may carry diseases that can also be transmitted to humans, and there may also be a risk of explosions” because of the large amounts of gases produced by decomposition.
The German public has been closely monitoring the whale’s fate for weeks since it first stranded on March 23.
It was first sighted on a sandbank near the city of Lübeck on the German Baltic Sea coast, where it freed itself but became stuck several times.
Various attempts to save it failed and the authorities gave up.
But then two wealthy entrepreneurs, Karin Walter-Mommert and Walter Gunz, stepped in to finance the rescue, which cost an estimated €1.5 million.
They came up with what many thought was a long-shot plan: lure the whale into a water-filled hold on a special barge and then tow it back to its natural habitat.
Some experts criticized the privately funded rescue program at the time, saying it would only cause more suffering for the animals.
Till Backhaus, environment minister of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania region, said the whale’s death should make people “take nature conservation, species protection and climate change more seriously”.
Calling for lessons to be learned from the incident, Backhouse said he hoped to hold talks with Danish authorities on what to do with the whale as well as private initiatives to try to save it.
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This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.
