“She wanted to live”: the whale stranded in Germany swims freely after the operation financed by two wealthy entrepreneurs

This is the epilogue of a saga followed throughout Germany: Timmy, the humpback whale stranded for several weeks in the north of Germany, in the Baltic Sea, is now swimming freely. The cetacean was released on Saturday morning in the North Sea, off the coast of Denmark, after being towed from Wismar Bay.

According to Karin Walter-Mommert, the wealthy entrepreneur who financed this final rescue attempt with Walter Gunz, the whale left the barge expelling air, swam in the “right direction” and “should then follow the Norwegian coast towards the Arctic”.

The last chance operation

This episode is the latest in a long series of rescue attempts. The whale, a male approximately 10 m long and nearly 12 tonnes, was spotted at the end of March near Timmendorfer Strand, hence its nickname, “Timmy”. Although she managed to free herself several times, sometimes with the help of emergency services, Timmy always found herself stuck on sandbanks.

After several failures, rescue operations to save Timmy stopped at the beginning of April. Experts then believed that the weakened whale was doomed.

Karin Walter-Mommert, organizer of equestrian events, and Walter Gunz, founder of a major chain of electronics stores, then offered to finance a last-ditch operation, with the green light from the regional authorities. Two veterinarians deemed the whale “transportable from a medical point of view” and the operation began on Thursday April 17 in front of the cameras of the German media, many of whom made the trip.

Ultimately, the last attempt was the right one. Despite “small injuries, probably due to transport in rough seas, but only superficial”, according to Karin Walter-Mommert, Timmy was observed swimming freely on Saturday morning. Its trajectory is now tracked using a GPS transmitter.

“I can’t say how happy I am. We saw that the whale fought and wanted to live,” responded Karin Walter-Mommert in the Bild newspaper. “I am relieved and very happy. It was the greatest adventure of my life so far,” added Walter Gunz. It remains to be seen whether Timmy will survive this ordeal.