The stranded humpback whale Timmy probably died shortly after the controversial rescue operation, German authorities report. The whale stranded in Germany and had to be taken to sea by ship.
Humpback whale Timmy, which washed ashore in March, was returned to the open sea after an intensive rescue effort. The rescue operation was widely criticized because it allegedly caused the animal to suffer unnecessarily.
After a few days the animal washed up dead on the Danish coast. The animal’s remains loomed there to explode.
The humpback whale ultimately turned out to have lived for only five or six days, reports State Minister Till Backhaus of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, after reading the transmitter the animal was wearing.
The environment minister calls the end of the whale ‘sad’. “She was not able to take advantage of that opportunity.”
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