Image: Sea Shepherd
The drama surrounding the humpback whale in the Baltic Sea has been going on for days. It is currently in relatively shallow water again. And the water level is expected to drop significantly at night.
March 29, 2026, 10:10 p.mMarch 29, 2026, 10:10 p.m
Rescued off Timmendorfer Strand, touched down again off Wismar: The prospects for the humpback whale off the Baltic Sea coast are deteriorating. The animal was very weak, said the director of the German Marine Museum in Stralsund, Burkard Baschek, at a press conference in Wismar. The whale’s fitness condition has deteriorated significantly compared to Saturday. According to the Maritime Museum, the humpback whale’s breathing rate is reduced.
On Sunday night, the twelve to 15 meter long whale was able to swim free from a sandbank in front of the small island of Walfisch in the Wismar Bay when the water level rose. But a little later he was stuck again – very close by, in a place about two meters deep. He lay there seemingly motionless on Sunday, only occasionally releasing a fountain of water into the air. The situation remained unchanged in the evening. The experts hope that it might start moving in the dark.
Rest should help lost humpback whale in the Baltic Sea
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Environment Minister Till Backhaus (SPD) said they wanted to leave the whale alone now – in the hope that it will recharge its batteries, free itself and find its way out of the Baltic Sea. His calls have decreased since Saturday. “He’s feeling bad,” said the minister. According to him, the authorities have drawn up a restricted area within a radius of 500 meters around the whale, into which no ship or boat is allowed to enter. “The police have taken over surveillance,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of the Environment. Numerous onlookers gathered on the pier.
Baschek said the whale was lying in a water depth that roughly corresponded to that on Sunday night when the animal freed itself. He therefore described the latest situation not as a stranding, but rather as a “body touchdown” of the whale. He can currently free himself, but is making no attempt to do so, said Baschek.
Water levels are expected to drop by 40 centimeters overnight
The whale’s nutritional status is good, as Stephanie Gross from the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research at the Hannover University of Veterinary Medicine said. Humpback whales can go for weeks without food.
Meanwhile, the whale’s prospects threaten to worsen. Baschek said the water level is expected to drop by about 40 centimeters by 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. Monday night. “If the whale doesn’t get free on its own in the next few hours, the situation will get worse for it overall.”
When asked whether humpback whales may be coming to shore to die, Stephanie Gross said there is no scientific evidence of this. “Otherwise we would see significantly more humpback whale strandings worldwide if all the old, sick, weakened humpback whales came to the shallow water areas.”
Whale has been traveling along the Baltic Sea coast since the beginning of March
Greenpeace marine biologist Thilo Maack said fishing was a problem for marine mammals worldwide. It is estimated that around 300,000 whales and dolphins die in nets every year. The whale off the Baltic Sea coast also apparently got caught in a net. Over the past few days, helpers have been able to remove part of the net from the animal. According to Stephanie Gross, part of it is still hanging in its mouth. It couldn’t be pulled out.
According to the information, the whale had repeatedly appeared on the Baltic Sea coast since the beginning of March, first in the harbor of Wismar, later in the Bay of Lübeck and on the coast near Steinbeck (Northwest Mecklenburg district). The animal was caught in a net. Emergency services and marine conservationists from the Sea Shepherd organization had freed it of some of the material.
Last Monday morning, the marine mammal was discovered on a sandbank off Timmendorfer Strand near Lübeck. An extensive rescue operation began and on Friday night the humpback whale freed itself through a channel dug out by an excavator.
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