The humpback whale was only able to free itself from its predicament for a short time.Image: keystone
The whale has been stranded in the Baltic Sea for the third time in a week.
March 29, 2026, 05:3203/29/2026, 09:57
The drama in the Baltic Sea continues: The whale still hasn’t managed to free itself. After he managed to get free from the sandbank in Wismar Bay for a short time as the water level rose, he became stranded again after only 800 meters.
The humpback whale was discovered on a sandbank off Timmendorfer Strand on Monday morning. After days of efforts by numerous helpers, the animal surprisingly freed itself from the sandbank on Friday night through a channel dug out by an excavator – and swam out of the Bay of Lübeck towards Mecklenburg, albeit close to the coast.
The animal stranded again on Saturday afternoon – this time in the Wismar Bay south of the island of Walfisch. Since the marine mammal’s skin was too diseased to attach a transmitter to, the whale had temporarily disappeared and was searched for and rediscovered by environmentalists.
It is still unclear why the whale appeared off Timmendorfer Strand. Large whales such as humpback whales are not native to the Baltic Sea. According to experts, they can follow schools of fish in search of food and end up in the Baltic Sea. Underwater noise could also play a role.
No rescue operation on Saturday
There was no further rescue operation on Saturday. “We want to give the whale the chance to free itself,” said Greenpeace marine biologist Thilo Maack to the German Press Agency. “The best thing now is to leave the whale completely alone,” he added. How the animal is doing is difficult to assess and depends on the availability of food and how stressed it is.
According to experts, large whales are occasionally spotted in the Baltic Sea, which then find their way back to the saltier North Sea after weeks. According to the marine conservation organization Sea Shepherd, the animal is probably the whale that had previously been spotted several times off the coast of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and caused a stir when it appeared in the harbor of Wismar at the beginning of March.
The fate of the whale not only moves many people in Germany, but also abroad. (hkl/sda/dpa)