The humpback whale nicknamed Timmy by the press that has been stranded for weeks off the German coast has been set free, the team behind the initiative responsible for the operation said, according to images from livestream provider News5 on Saturday.
The humpback whale rescued from a shallow Baltic Sea bay off the island of Poel was released into the North Sea, leaving the barge at around 9 am (0700 GMT), team member Jens Schwarck said.
The convoy was in the Skagerrak that morning, the strait between the east coast of Norway and western Sweden, leading to the North Sea.
The whale spent weeks trapped in shallow waters off before volunteers transferred it onto a water-filled barge on Tuesday.
Even before that ordeal, the 12-metre, 12-ton whale had repeatedly got stuck off Germany's Baltic coast before stranding in the Bay of Wismar.
After authorities failed with several rescue attempts, a private initiative backed by millionaires stepped in to organize the effort to free the whale, despite concerns from environmental organizations and marine wildlife experts that it could cause the animal more pain.
Rescuers hope the whale will be able to swim through the deep waters of the North Sea and return to its natural habitat in the Atlantic.
Schwarck said it was not yet clear whether any tracking data was available. It was also unclear how the whale swam off or was towed clear of the vessel, and how it is doing.
The barge brought the whale to a point known as the entrance to the North Sea where the Kattegat and Skagerrak converge and removed the barrier net at the rear of the barge on Friday afternoon. But despite this opening, the whale stayed in the barge for hours.
While the team said the whale had been fitted with a GPS transmitter to allow for tracking, it was not clear whether this was working and the transmitter was transmitting data.
Is the whale well?
The 4- to 6-year-old male whale was first spotted in the Baltic Sea in early March. After he was repeatedly stranded, entrepreneurs funded the rescue barge which was brought by tugboat to northern Denmark.
However, some wildlife specialists fear Timmy has become severely disoriented, fearing he may be injured or dying.
It is unclear whether Timmy can still swim and dive normally, German whale researcher and marine biologist Fabian Ritter. It is also unclear whether he can feed, due to net fragments found in its mouth.
Animal welfare organization Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) said, “We can only speak of a rescue once the whale is back in the North Atlantic and survives there in the long term; its skin has fully recovered; it is foraging independently again and gaining weight; and it is behaving naturally.”
The WDC and International Whaling Commission (IWC) doubt Timmy is able to survive in the longer term, though if the transmitter does not work, this would be unclear and the whale could perish in the coming days or weeks.
Danish authorities told dpa on Friday that they would not launch a rescue attempt should the whale become stranded again.
The Danish Environment Ministry noted that strandings of marine mammals are "a naturally occurring phenomenon" and whales should generally "not be rescued or disturbed by human intervention."
Animal welfare groups, whale researchers and institutions including Germany's Maritime Museum maintain their assessment that what the whale needs is rest.
- German group
- Releases Timmy
- Whale
- North Sea
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
