ANHOLT, Denmark (AP) — The carcass of a humpback whale, whose life and death captivated Germans for months as the mammal became repeatedly stranded in the Baltic Sea, was dragged Saturday onto a Danish beach after two weeks of the body languishing in shallow waters.
The whale had gained the nicknames "Timmy" and "Hope" as German media outlets sent push alerts and updated live blogs with the status of its health since it was first spotted off the German coast on March 3.
READ MORE: Stranded humpback whale in Germany's Baltic Sea weakens as hopes of its return to the Atlantic fade
The whale was found dead on May 14, stranded 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 whale's death ended months of a spectacular and contentious rescue effort that culminated May 2, when the mammal was transported toward the North Sea in a barge in a final effort to guide it back to its natural habitat in the Atlantic Ocean.
