Stranded Whale Rescue: Transport Updates from North & Baltic Seas
- Rescuers are nearing their goal of transporting an injured humpback whale, nicknamed “Timmy,” to the North Sea after weeks of efforts to move the animal from the Baltic...
- The young male whale was first spotted in shallow waters off the German coast on March 3, repeatedly running aground on sandbanks.
- “The weight and the pressure with it really lifted off my heart, when the whale… just swam right into our barge without our help,” Felix Bohnsack, the technical...
Rescuers are nearing their goal of transporting an injured humpback whale, nicknamed “Timmy,” to the North Sea after weeks of efforts to move the animal from the Baltic Sea. As of Thursday morning, the barge carrying Timmy was in Danish waters, continuing its journey around the northern tip of Denmark, according to multiple reports.
The young male whale was first spotted in shallow waters off the German coast on March 3, repeatedly running aground on sandbanks. The rescue operation, funded by private donations including from Walter Gunz, founder of the German electronics retail chain MediaMarkt, involved dredging a new channel and carefully guiding Timmy onto a specially prepared, partially submerged barge.
“The weight and the pressure with it really lifted off my heart, when the whale… just swam right into our barge without our help,” Felix Bohnsack, the technical lead for the initiative, told reporters, as reported by USA Today.
The operation has been described as unprecedented in Germany. Till Backhaus, minister for climate protection, agriculture, rural areas and the environment of the federal state of Mecklenburg Vorpommern, stated, “Something like this has never happened before in Germany, where a life-saving operation of this kind has been carried out,” according to Yahoo News.
Timmy was initially found in low-saline waters, an unusual location for humpback whales. Scientists suggested the whale may have been disoriented or ill. The journey to the North Sea aims to allow Timmy to recover and eventually return to the Atlantic Ocean.
Images taken on Wednesday showed divers alongside Timmy as the whale swam onto the barge. The barge is expected to reach the North Sea where, if deemed healthy enough, Timmy will be released. According to Welt, Timmy has also been repeatedly registered at the Markenamt (brand office).
Humpback calves typically range between 16 and 18 feet in length and weigh over 1,000 pounds at birth, according to the National Parks Service.