A private rescue team released a humpback whale nicknamed Timmy into the North Sea on Saturday, capping a two-month ordeal that saw the animal stranded in shallow waters off Germany’s Baltic Sea coast and drew worldwide attention, according to a member of the rescue effort.
The whale was released around 9 a.m. local time from a barge, said Jens Schwarck, a member of the private initiative, according to the German news agency dpa. The release point was about 70 kilometers (45 miles) from the coast of Skagen, Denmark. Drone footage showed a whale swimming and spouting water near the barge, though it was not immediately confirmed that the animal was indeed Timmy. A GPS transmitter was attached before the release to track the whale’s future location, dpa reported.
Timmy was first spotted swimming near Germany’s Baltic Sea coast on March 3, far from its natural habitat in the Atlantic Ocean. The whale’s health steadily declined as it became repeatedly stranded in shallow waters near the coastal city of Wismar. It breathed irregularly, often barely moved for days, and suffered from a bad skin condition related to the Baltic Sea’s low salt content. Rescuers applied kilos of zinc ointment to treat the lesions.
The animal’s plight ignited a public debate over whether to intervene. Some scientists believed the whale had sought shallow waters because it was weak and needed rest, and argued that the animal should be allowed to die in peace. But the veterinarians with the private initiative considered the whale fit for transport, and the environment minister for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state gave the green light for the rescue attempt. Activists staged protests on the beach in Wismar calling for the whale’s liberation, while local media produced dayslong livestreams that fed outsized public attention, with online newspapers blasting push alerts about the smallest developments in Timmy’s health.
It remains unclear why the whale swam into the Baltic Sea. Some experts say it may have lost its way while following a shoal of herring or during migration.