On the morning of May 2, a humpback whale known as Timmy swam out from a barge after the protective net was removed and was spotted in the sea near the vessel.
Der Spiegel reports this.
The animal was transported for several days on a converted barge filled with water from the Baltic Sea to the North Sea, accompanied by marine biologists and activists. The whale sustained minor injuries during the transport.
The rescue operation lasted several days and attracted attention in Germany and beyond. On April 28, volunteers managed to load the whale onto the barge using fire hoses.
The whale was named Timmy after the resort town of Timmendorfer Strand, near where it first became stranded in shallow water.
According to dpa, the whale’s initial disappearance from the barge went unnoticed, but it was later spotted in open water.
The animal’s condition remains uncertain: the whale is severely exhausted after a prolonged stay on the shoal. It will be considered saved if, over the next few weeks, it resumes its natural behavior, begins to feed, and its skin injuries heal.
To return to its natural habitat, the whale must travel hundreds of kilometers to the Atlantic Ocean.
Plans were in place to attach a GPS tracker to the animal before its release, but there is currently no information on whether this was successful.
Since early March, a young humpback whale, nearly 12 meters long, has run aground several times in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Germany. At the end of March, it found itself in shallow water again and has been lying almost motionless since March 31. After that, authorities suspended the official rescue operation, allowing volunteers from a private initiative to continue attempts to save the animal at their own risk.
As a reminder, Ukrainian scientists from the Antarctic research station "Akademik Vernadsky" have put forward several hypotheses as to why whales jump out of the water.
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