Humpback whale released after spectacular rescue effort found dead off Denmark

A humpback whale found dead this week off a Danish island has been identified as the animal released two weeks ago in a spectacular and controversial rescue effort after repeatedly becoming stranded off Germany’s Baltic Sea coast, Danish authorities said Saturday.

The dead whale washed up on Thursday just off the small island of Anholt in the Kattegat, the broad strait between Denmark and Sweden that connects the Baltic Sea to the North Sea. The site is south of the location where the whale, which gained the nicknames “Timmy” and “Hope,” was released on May 2 after being transported toward the North Sea in a special barge.

“It can now be confirmed that the stranded humpback whale near Anholt is the same whale that was previously stranded in Germany and was the subject of rescue attempts,” Jane Hansen, division head at the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, said in an emailed statement.

WATCH | German rescuers tried to help release Timmy out of shallow waters in March:

Humpback whale ‘Timmy’ still stuck in shallow waters off Germany

A young humpback whale named Timmy by rescuers continued to struggle to find its way out of shallow bays off the Baltic coast of Germany on Monday. Repeated attempts to guide the whale toward deeper waters have failed since the whale was first spotted a week ago.

The whale, whose gender has not been established, was named after Timmendorfer Strand, the white sandy beach on Germany’s resort-filled Baltic coastline where it was first spotted on a nearby sandbank last Monday.

Hansen said conditions on Saturday made it possible for a Danish Nature Agency employee to locate and retrieve a tracking device that was still fastened to the whale’s back, and “the position and appearance of the device confirm that this is the same whale that had previously been observed and handled in German waters.”

The days-long effort to free the animal split public opinion in Germany, with some Germans saying it would be better to put down the whale as it appeared to be disoriented or ill and would suffer too much stress in the operation.

Conservationists say disrupted migration routes and human influence play a role in whale strandings around the world, though animals can also lose their way while searching for food.