Month-long mission to save animal in Baltic sea off Germany has attracted national frenzy
Timmy the whale rescue attempt begins off coast of Germany – in pictures
Attempts to rescue a young humpback whale stranded in shallow waters off the Baltic coast in Germany have been criticised by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) as “inadvisable”.
The 10 metre-long whale, variously nicknamed Timmy or Hope, swam on to a sandbank more than a month ago and its health deteriorated as it repeatedly became stranded. Hopes were raised on Tuesday when divers helped the mammal on to a flooded barge. By Wednesday, the barge, pulled by a tug boat, had reached Danish waters as it headed towards the North Sea.
But the IWC’s strandings expert panel said the creature “appeared to be severely compromised” and “unlikely to survive” even if attempts to move it into deeper water were successful.
