A humpback whale nicknamed “Timmy,” stranded in shallow waters near Germany since March, started traveling toward the North Sea after reaching Danish waters on Wednesday, German authorities said.
The whale had been spotted swimming near Germany’s Baltic Sea coast on March 3, far from its natural Atlantic Ocean habitat. As Timmy repeatedly became stranded in shallow waters, its health deteriorated and earlier efforts to coax it toward deeper seas were livestreamed, drawing global attention to the animal’s condition.
On Tuesday, rescuers pulled the whale to a flooded barge using straps and a channel that had previously been dredged to create a passage to the vessel, German press agency dpa reported. After the move onto the barge, authorities said the next phase involves routing the barge around Denmark’s northern tip through the strait of Skagerrak, which would lead toward the North Sea.
Mecklenburg Vorpommern climate protection, agriculture, rural areas and environment minister Till Backhaus said the government had authorized the latest effort after a private initiative proposed it, even amid warnings from parts of the scientific community that the attempt might be too much for the animal. At a press conference, Backhaus said, “Something like this has never happened before in Germany, where a life-saving operation of this kind has been carried out,” adding, “And this was an experiment, and the experiment was a success, and that’s wonderful.”
Backhaus said Timmy was resting peacefully and that on Tuesday night the whale vocalized, which he said indicated the animal was doing well. He said the initiative’s plan moved forward despite a debate that has continued for weeks over whether it should be left to die in peace or whether efforts should be made to help it return to the Atlantic.
Environmental activists staged protests on the beach in Wismar, where some called for Timmy’s liberation and others backed different ideas for transporting the whale. Thilo Maack, a marine biologist at Greenpeace, told The Associated Press earlier this month that efforts to save Timmy had caused severe stress for the animal.
“I believe the whale will die very soon now. And I would also like to raise the question: What is actually so bad about that?” Maack said. “Yes, animals live, animals die. This animal is really, really very, very, very, very sick. And it has decided to seek rest.”
Some scientists said the whale may have been seeking the shallow waters because it was weak and needed rest. But veterinarians involved in the private initiative said the animal was fit for transport, supporting the decision to attempt the journey by barge toward deeper waters.