Authorities and experts have abandoned active rescue efforts for a humpback whale that has been wandering the Baltic Sea for weeks. On Wednesday, they confirmed that the marine mammal, stranded in shallow water off the island of Poel near Wismar in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, cannot be saved.
"We firmly expect the animal to die there," said expert Burkard Baschek at a partly emotional joint press conference with Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's state environment minister Till Backhaus (SPD).
"We have pursued every idea," Backhaus emphasized. Following another assessment on Wednesday, all approaches were reviewed once more. All parties involved concluded that the whale had "found its place" where it currently lies. "I wish the whale peace," the minister added. It was now clear that the animal "must ultimately pass away."
No further active rescue attempts, such as those undertaken in recent days, are planned. According to Backhaus, an exclusion zone has been established around the whale, monitored by police. Drone flights over the area are also prohibited. The state minister called on everyone to leave the dying whale in peace, warning that all violations would be strictly pursued by authorities.
The humpback whale, measuring approximately 12 to 15 meters in length, has been roaming the Baltic Sea for around four weeks according to authorities. Last Monday it initially became stranded on a sandbank off the Schleswig-Holstein coast, from which it was freed using excavators. Since Saturday it has been stuck in Wismar Bay off Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
On Monday evening, the increasingly weakened and apparently sick animal managed to free itself from the seabed once more under its own power and disappeared for several hours, before returning to Wismar Bay on Tuesday and running aground again off Poel. Accompanying boats were unable to prevent this. Experts had also believed it was theoretically possible for the whale to free itself again.
On Wednesday, specialists from the institutions involved, including environmental organizations Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd, traveled out to the whale once more. Afterwards, given its condition, they abandoned all hope of any further effort from the animal, which the media had nicknamed "Timmy." The whale was showing only a reduced and very irregular breathing rate and was barely moving, said Baschek. Its reactions to human approach were "virtually zero."
Any further attempts to encourage the whale to swim away would be "pure animal cruelty," said Baschek, scientific director of the German Oceanographic Museum Foundation. Everything possible had been tried in recent days, added Greenpeace marine biologist Thilo Maack at the joint press conference. The focus now was on giving the animal "the peace it is seeking and needs." Sea Shepherd also stated that any further rescue operations would violate animal welfare.
According to Baschek, the dying process could take "some time." Authorities and experts said they would continue to keep the public regularly informed.
Large whales are not native to the Baltic Sea, as conditions there are unsuitable for them. How the animal entered the enclosed sea and why it could not find its way back out remains unclear. Authorities and experts say the whale is sick and weakened, suffering among other things from skin problems caused by the Baltic's low salt content.
The whale also has remnants of fishing net in its mouth, which could only be partially removed. Rescue teams had previously retrieved approximately 50 to 70 meters of netting, Backhaus said on Wednesday, though it is unknown whether the mammal had swallowed additional pieces.
The humpback whale, which is native to the Atlantic, was first spotted in the port of Wismar on March 3rd. According to the German Oceanographic Museum Foundation, it initially continued moving along the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern coast in the following weeks. On the night of March 23rd it became stranded at Timmendorfer Strand in Schleswig-Holstein, freed itself on March 27th, and then swam back into Wismar Bay.
According to the German Marine Conservation Foundation, humpback whales and other large whales have already been spotted in the Baltic or found dead there on several occasions in recent years. Experts suggest they may enter the shallow inland sea, averaging only around 52 meters in depth, while following the fish schools they feed on. Some whales on their migrations may also simply take a wrong turn.
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