Humpback Whale Found Dead Near Danish Island After Rescue

A humpback whale rescued after beaching itself in Germany has been found dead near a Danish island. The whale was first spotted stuck on a sandbank on 23 March off the island of Poel on Germany's Baltic coast. It swam free in early May after a water-filled barge carried it into the North Sea.

The operation was privately funded by two German entrepreneurs and drew public debate over whether the effort would cause the animal distress.

A whale carcass was spotted on Thursday off the Danish island of Anholt. Authorities were not immediately able to confirm it was the same whale. In a statement the Danish Environmental Protection Agency said conditions on Saturday made it possible for the whale's identity to be verified and its tracking device retrieved.

The agency told AFP there are no concrete plans to remove the whale from the area or to perform a necropsy. The agency stressed that people should not approach the whale because it might carry diseases that can be transmitted to humans. It added there may also be a risk of explosion because of large volumes of internal gas caused by decomposition.

The whale, nicknamed Timmy or Hope by rescuers and German media, became stranded on Timmendorfer Beach in Lübeck Bay on 23 March. At first it freed itself but became stuck again several times. German authorities attempted a number of rescues before announcing they were giving up.

Entrepreneurs Karin Walter-Mommert and Walter Gunz later funded a private rescue, fitting the whale with a tracking device and coaxing it onto a water-filled transport ship called Fortuna B. Till Backhaus, the environment minister in the northern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, hailed the operation as a success.

Wildlife groups had been sceptical about the whale's future after its release into the North Sea.