There is little hope left for the humpback whale stranded in the Baltic Sea. "The overall prognosis does not look good," said marine researcher Burkard Baschek on Sunday in Wismar after an on-site assessment. Following the large-scale rescue operation involving excavators at Timmendorfer Strand, no further rescue attempts are planned for the marine mammal in Wismar. However, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Environment Minister Till Backhaus (SPD) ruled out euthanizing the weakened animal.
The humpback whale has been wandering through the Baltic Sea since early March. Rescuers had hoped it would find its way back to the Atlantic Ocean via the North Sea, where it naturally belongs. After the whale lay stranded on a sandbank near Timmendorfer Strand for several days and only managed to free itself after a rescue operation, it was discovered on Saturday in Wismar Bay near Walfisch Island. Although it was able to swim free on its own with the rising tide during the night to Sunday, it became stranded again shortly afterward.
As the experts decided together with Backhaus, the whale should now be given rest so it can gather strength and possibly free itself again. According to Baschek, it is located in water deep enough. "The animal would be capable of freeing itself," said the Director of the German Oceanographic Museum in Stralsund. Therefore, a rescue operation is not necessary.
However, its fitness condition has "significantly deteriorated" since Saturday. Unlike on Saturday, the whale is no longer making its own attempts to swim free. Should it manage to free itself again, there is also a great danger that it will soon become stranded again, Baschek said.
To ensure the whale is left undisturbed, authorities established an exclusion zone with a radius of 500 meters around the whale, said Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Environment Minister Backhaus. Ship captains are being informed via radio. "I truly wish for the whale to come to rest and to gather strength."
However, the animal only has a short window of time available. Decreasing water levels are expected in Wismar Bay, and with falling water levels, the chance of the whale freeing itself diminishes.
According to Minister Backhaus, Baschek, and expert Stefanie Groß from the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research in Hanover, the experts also discussed whether the sick whale could be euthanized and thus freed from its suffering. However, Groß stated, "there is no reliable method that would relieve the animal quickly and painlessly." Backhaus therefore said regarding euthanasia, "we are ruling that out."
As the Environment Minister said, those responsible in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are already dealing with the question of whether and how the whale could be recovered if it dies. The worst-case considerations have "long since" taken place, said Backhaus, without wanting to provide details. "We still hope that we will not come to that situation."
The Minister explained that the humpback whale likely ended up in the Baltic Sea because it probably got on the wrong route while hunting for fish. Expert Groß rejected speculation that the visibly sick whale might have consciously swum into shallow waters to die. "There is no scientific evidence that humpback whales swim into shallow water areas to die there." If this were the case, old or sick humpback whales would be found near shores much more frequently.
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