Video: watson/Emanuella Kälin
Mar 24, 2026, 2:22 p.mMarch 24, 2026, 2:25 p.m
Concerns about a whale stranded on the German Baltic Sea coast continue. In the morning the animal continued to lie in the shallow water in front of the town of Timmendorfer Strand.
The whale is doing unchanged, said Carsten Mannheimer from the marine conservation organization Sea Shepherd to the German Press Agency (dpa). He breathes and makes noises. Occasionally he raises his head.
It was initially not clear how the rescue attempts would continue. According to Mannheimer, experts from the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW) in Büsum (Schleswig-Holstein) and the Hanover University of Veterinary Medicine as well as emergency services wanted to discuss in the morning how to proceed.
The flood around midnight was not enough for the ten-meter-long animal to swim free on its own, a police spokesman said early in the morning. According to police, the marine mammal was discovered in the water off the Niendorf district on Monday night.
Video: watson/Emanuella Kälin
Rescue attempts were in vain
From midday on Monday until late at night, helpers tried in vain to get the whale, which was stuck on a sandbank, into deeper water. Police boats, inflatable boats and drones from the fire department, numerous helpers and ITAW experts were used.
It is still unclear why the whale appeared in front of Niendorf. ITAW expert Stephanie Gross said perhaps the animal was sick or injured, perhaps just exhausted. But it could also be that the whale simply accidentally landed in the shallow water area.
Probably a male humpback whale on the move
According to Sea Shepherd, the animal is a humpback whale. Spokesman Sven Biertumfel assumes that it is probably a young bull because, unlike cows, the male animals go on the move. It is also obvious that the animal is the same whale that has been seen in the northeast German port of Wismar (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) since March. (sda/dpa)