The whale Timmy, rescued in the Baltic Sea in early May, found dead off the coast of Denmark

His perilous rescue took place in front of cameras around the world. Timmy, the humpback whale that was rescued in Germany at the beginning of May after becoming stranded, was finally found dead near the Danish island of Anholt.

“It is now confirmed that the humpback whale stranded near Anholt is the same whale that had previously stranded in Germany and had been the subject of rescue attempts,” Jane Hansen, head of division at this government agency, said in a statement sent to AFP. According to German media, Danish experts found a tracer on the animal which allowed its identification.

The cetacean was first spotted stuck on a sandbank on March 23. After several unsuccessful attempts, she was finally brought back to the North Sea on a barge from Wismar Bay on the Baltic coast, then released on May 2.

The bloody carcass

Part of Timmy’s caudal fin (located at the end of the whale’s tail) has been sectioned, indicates Morten Abildstrøm of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, quoted by the DPA news agency. Aerial photos taken by a photographer from the German daily Bild show the carcass of the animal adrift, its back covered in blood and gulls feeding on it. The animal could have been dead for some time, report Danish experts, cited by Die Welt.

At the end of April, specialists estimated that Timmy’s chances of survival were low after several failed rescue attempts. Two wealthy German entrepreneurs Karin Walter-Mommert and Walter Gunz then financed a last-ditch operation, estimated at 1.5 million euros, according to information from the Guardian. The animal had been lifted and then placed in a submerged barge, usually used to transport ships afloat. The humpback whale was then towed for several days and then released into the North Sea. After Timmy’s rescue operation, scientists lost track of him, despite installing a GPS.

The operation, widely covered by the international media, caused discord within the teams of scientists. Several of them denounced a lack of transparency regarding the GPS data but also the circumstances of its release. Timmy was initially supposed to be towed to the open sea, but was released earlier than planned about 70 km north of the Danish coast, in a sea area particularly frequented by boats.