The strategy involved raising the whale from the seabed with inflatable cushions and relocating it using pontoons back to the North Sea, or potentially as far as the Atlantic Ocean.
Attempts to save a humpback whale that had been stranded for several weeks on Germany’s Baltic Sea shore became more complex on Monday when the animal unexpectedly swam away, only to appear trapped once more.
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The 13.5-metre-long whale’s fight for survival has touched the German public deeply, with some media outlets referring to it as «Timmy.»
Rescue teams had cleared away sand from the location where the whale had been trapped for nearly three weeks off Poel Island, close to Wismar, and deployed a tugboat for the rescue operation.
The objective was to lift the whale from the seabed using inflatable cushions and then move it with pontoons back to the North Sea or potentially to the Atlantic Ocean.
Nevertheless, on Monday the animal freed itself and then stopped on another nearby sandbank, according to Till Backhaus, the environment minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Rescue staff interpret the whale’s attempt to swim away as an indicator of its relative health and intend to make another rescue attempt, according to Bild newspaper.
Backhaus, speaking on-site, emphasized that the whale was not fully stranded this time but was instead «resting.»
The animal was initially discovered stuck on a sandbank on 23 March near Lübeck, before freeing itself and subsequently becoming trapped several more times.
On 1 April, regional officials expressed their belief that the severely injured and distressed whale likely would not survive, deeming rescue efforts futile.
However, last week, local authorities gave the green light to a final rescue plan put forward by two entrepreneurs, one of whom founded the prominent electronics retail chain MediaMarkt.
Additional sources • AFP