"A whale had been found dead on Friday near the small island of Anholt in the Kattegat, a broad strait between Denmark and Sweden, and confirmed it was Timmy on Saturday. Jane Hansen, division head at the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, said in a statement: 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."
"She added that conditions on Saturday made it possible for a Danish Nature Agency employee to locate and retrieve a tracking device that was 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 10-metre long calf became a global sensation after it was spotted stranded on Timmendorfer beach, a sandbank in shallow waters off the coast of Germany, nearly two months ago. As its health deteriorated, German officials gave up trying to rescue the mammal, saying they believed it could not be freed. But after a national outcry, two millionaires in Germany said they were prepared to pay whatever it costs to release the creature."
"The rescue attempt which is believed to have cost about 1.5m (1.3m) involved floating Timmy away from the sandbanks and into a water-filled barge, which was pulled by a tugboat from Wismar Bay near the German city of Lubeck to deeper waters off the coast of Denmark. It was criticised as inadvisable by the International Whaling Commission because the male juvenile, nicknamed Timmy after the beach where he was stranded, appeared to be severely compromised and was unlikely to survive after its release."
A stranded 10-metre humpback whale known as Timmy was found dead near Anholt in the Kattegat. Danish authorities confirmed on Saturday that the dead whale was the same individual previously stranded in Germany. A Danish Nature Agency employee located and retrieved a tracking device attached to the whale’s back, and the device’s position and appearance matched observations from German waters. Timmy had become widely known after being spotted stranded on a shallow sandbank near Timmendorfer beach in Germany nearly two months earlier. German officials had stopped rescue efforts, believing it could not be freed, but public pressure led to a costly rescue involving transport by barge to deeper waters off Denmark. The International Whaling Commission criticized the approach as inadvisable given the whale’s poor condition and low likelihood of survival.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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