BERLIN (AP) — A barge carrying a humpback whale that had been stranded in shallow waters near Germany since March has begun its journey toward the North Sea. It reached Danish waters on Wednesday, German authorities said.
Nicknamed Timmy by German media, the whale was spotted swimming near Germany’s Baltic Sea coast on March 3, far from its natural habitat in the Atlantic Ocean. The mammal’s health deteriorated as it became repeatedly stranded in shallow waters, and unsuccessful efforts to coax it toward deeper seas were livestreamed across the globe.
Rescuers on Tuesday pulled the whale to a flooded barge using straps and a channel previously dredged to create a passage to the vessel, the Germany press agency dpa reported.
The barge is now expected to go around the northern tip of Denmark via the strait of Skagerrak toward the North Sea.
“Something like this has never happened before in Germany, where a life-saving operation of this kind has been carried out,” Till Backhaus, minister for climate protection, agriculture, rural areas and the environment of the federal state of Mecklenburg Vorpommern, told a press conference. “And this was an experiment, and the experiment was a success, and that’s wonderful.”
The minister said the whale was resting peacefully and on Tuesday night it vocalized, which meant it was doing well.
The minister had given the green light for the latest attempt to save the whale, proposed by a private initiative, despite some warnings from the scientific community that it may be too much for the animal.
The debate about whether to let it die in peace or try to assist its return to the Atlantic Ocean has gone on for weeks. Activists have staged protests on the beach in Wismar calling for its liberation, while others have supported new ideas about how the whale could be transported.
Thilo Maack, a marine biologist at Greenpeace, told the The Associated Press earlier this month that efforts to save Timmy have caused the animal severe stress.
“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?” he said. “Yes, animals live, animals die. This animal is really, really very, very, very sick. And it has decided to seek rest.”
Some scientists believe the whale had searched especially for shallow waters because it was weak and needed rest. The veterinarians of the private initiative, however, consider the animal fit for transport.