After being stranded in shallow waters near Germany since March, ‘Timmy’ the humpback whale was released on Saturday (2 May).
Having initially been spotted swimming near the Baltic Sea coast (far away from its natural habitat in the Atlantic Ocean), the whale’s health deteriorated.
It soon became a bit of a viral moment as live-streams showed efforts to coax the humpback towards deeper seas.
And a debate soon emerged over the whale should be left to die in peace or if there should be an attempt to help it return to the Atlantic.
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Following Saturday’s release (with £1.3 million said to have been funded by private donors), Timmy’s whereabouts and health remain unknown. But heartbreakingly, experts say it is ‘highly likely’ that the whale is now dead.
The humpback was transported in a water-holding barge, pulled by a tugboat in a rescue initiative, funded in part by Karin Walter-Mommet.
And he confirmed to German media today that a tracker fitted to Timmy, supposed to transmit details on vital signs, was not working.
The environment minister Germany’s Mecklenburg Vorpommern had given the green light for the rescue attempt, despite some warnings from scientists that it might be too much for the mammal.
It is said the whale was released at around 9am local time, about 45 miles from the coast of Skagen, Denmark.
Whale researcher Fabian Ritter said to German media: “If it turns out that the device doesn’t yield any information, it would be an all-round catastrophe, for the whale and the rescue team.”
Experts from the Oceanographic Museum in Stralsund, Burkard Baschek, warned last week that letting the whale lose in the open sea put it in danger of drowning.
Drone footage showed a whale swimming and spouting water near the barge but it wasn’t immediately confirmed that the mammal was indeed the now famed Timmy.
Some scientists had believed it searched out the shallow waters initially because it was weak and in need of rest.
However, on the other side, veterinarians of the private initiative considered the whale to be fit for transport.
Scientists are calling for the rescue team to release data from the tracker and Danish marine biologist Peter Madsen called the lack of information from the operation unusual and ill-advised.
In a statement on Saturday, Walter-Mommert distanced herself from the operation and ‘the manner in which the whale was abandoned’.
“We hereby expressly distance ourselves from the events and the manner in which the whale was set free. As we are still in the process of investigating, no names will be released at this time. We ask for your understanding,” it reads.
Alongside her co-financier, Walter Gunz, she called for ‘any consequences’ to instead be borne by ‘by the owner, the operators, and any crew members of the ships Fortuna B and Robin Hood’.
Jess Battison