Timmy’s remains are now being processed. Image: sc/news5
June 9, 2026, 11:45 amJune 9, 2026, 11:46 am
After the autopsy and parts of the humpback whale known as “Timmy” are transported to the mainland, the animal’s remains will be processed in a Danish factory. This was confirmed by the company Daka Denmark, which is taking care of the carcass.
In the company’s factory in Randers, the remains of whales like “Timmy” are initially separated into three components, according to a spokesman. The water is cleaned and discharged into the fjord. All fat – for example from the whale’s blubber layer – is converted into biodiesel. And everything else – bones, tendons and skin – is processed into a kind of flour that ends up as biomass for combustion in a cement factory.
The humpback whale was washed up dead on the beach on the Danish island of Anholt a few weeks ago. The animal’s autopsy last week revealed that the whale was a female. The cause of death, however, remained unclear.
Whale bones go into the museum – the rest is recycled
During the examination, which lasted several hours, the whale was opened and cut up. An excavator had lifted the carcass parts into prepared containers. The animal’s remains were removed from the beach on Friday and transported away on Monday. Some of the animal’s bones end up in the collection of the Natural History Museum in the Danish capital Copenhagen. These parts had already been picked up on Friday.
The animal was stranded off the German Baltic Sea coast several times from the end of March. A private initiative transported the very weakened humpback whale on a ship to the North Sea at the end of April and later released it there.
Mystery about “Timmy’s” death: Waiting for the tracker data
The initiative had attached a tracker to the whale, which was discovered on the animal. According to the Ministry of the Environment, the tracker data has now been collected in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. A spokeswoman explained in response to a dpa request that they were available to the initiative in full and to the ministry in parts: “The data should be evaluated as quickly as possible. As soon as this has happened, the public will be informed of the resulting findings.” (sda/dpa)