The humpback whale, known as Timmy or Hope, died after its body was found off the coast of Denmark, Der Spiegel magazine reported, citing the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.
Yesterday, a dead whale was found off the coast of the Danish island of Anholt. Today, a GPS tracking device was found on the body, which had been installed before the animal was released into the North Sea on May 2. The tracking device allowed the whale to be accurately identified.
Minister of the Environment of the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Till Backhaus, commenting on the death of the whale maleWhich shared many people’s hope that the animal “will be able to return to freedom.”
“It was always a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils: waiting for the animal to face its inevitable death in agony, or giving it one last chance and thus exposing it to potential stress,” Backhouse said.
Deutsche Welle reports that German zoologists have repeatedly criticized the initiative to save the whale and transfer it to the North Sea. The Danish authorities explained earlier that they would not help the whale if it washed ashore. They said it was a “natural phenomenon.”
Timmy, the 12-metre-long humpback whale, has been stuck in shallow waters in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Germany several times since early March. He chose himself or with the help of people. At the end of April – beginning of May, the animal was loaded onto a barge and transported to the North Sea. His rescue was watched around the world.