Humpback whale “Timmy” stranded several times in Wismar Bay at the end of March. Weeks of rescue attempts and a controversial towing operation towards the North Sea ultimately failed to prevent his death.Image: keystone
Strandings, rescue attempts, a controversial towing trip: Whale Timmy didn’t survive all of it. His death off Denmark seals a week-long tragedy.
The drama surrounding the whale Timmy, who was repeatedly stranded in the Baltic Sea, kept Germany busy for weeks. Now there is certainty: The humpback whale, which was towed towards the North Sea in a controversial operation, did not survive. The deadly odyssey of the sea giant:
March 3rd: A large whale was spotted in the harbor of Wismar, entangled in an estimated 50 meter long gill net. Emergency services from the police, fire brigade and the marine protection organization Sea Shepherd are able to remove most of it. The whale then leaves the harbor. A Sea Shepherd boat attempts to accompany him.
March 10th: The whale gets caught in a fishing net near Steinbeck, 20 kilometers northwest of Wismar. According to the police, when the fisherman retrieves the net, it is cut, the animal swims away, accompanied by a police boat, towards the open sea and disappears.
March 14th and 15th: The whale is repeatedly spotted on the Baltic Sea coast west of Wismar – near Boltenhagen, Warnkenhagen and again Steinbeck.
March 19th and 20th: The whale swims further west in the Bay of Lübeck. It has been spotted at Timmendorfer Strand and Scharbeutz, among other places; Sea Shepherd experts are removing further remains of the net.
Whale Timmy’s first stranding
March 23rd: On the night of March 23rd, the mammal stranded on a sandbank near Timmendorfer Strand in Schleswig-Holstein. Ships try in vain to help the whale with artificial waves. Experts classify the animal’s health as “worrying”.
March 26: A larger rescue operation begins with a floating dredger and other excavators. These dig a channel through the sandbank.
A gutter should be dug for Timmy.Image: keystone
March 27th: On the night of March 27th, the whale swims free through the channel and cruises in the Bay of Lübeck. Attempts to direct him into the open sea with boats fail.
Whale Timmy strands again in the Bay of Wismar
March 28th: The whale, now called Timmy by the media, stranded on the island of Walfisch in the Bay of Wismar. He is released that night.
March 29: A little later the animal swims into the Wismar Bay again. It will continue to be accompanied by representatives of the authorities and experts from the environmental organizations Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd. According to them, his condition is deteriorating.
March 30: After an acoustic mobilization attempt by helpers, the whale swims free in the evening. First he sets course for the open sea, but returns to the Wismar Bay.
March 31st: The whale swims into a shallow side bay off the island of Poel and lands again in shallow water. He stays there.
Timmy ended up stranded off the island of Poel.Image: keystone
Experts no longer see any chances for Timmy
April 1st: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Environment Minister Till Backhaus (SPD) and the experts involved in the rescue announce that they consider the animal to be dying and will refrain from further active attempts to help.
April 5th to 7th: Rescue options are being discussed again. An expert report classifies this as hopeless. It is said that the whale hardly shows any reactions anymore.
April 15: After emotional public discussions, Backhaus announced that the authorities would tolerate the rescue attempt by a private initiative. She wants to lift the animal using a system of air cushions and pontoons and tow it into the North Sea.
Activists launch controversial rescue measures
April 16th to 18th: The initiative, which was largely financed by the entrepreneurs Karin Walter-Mommert and Walter Gunz, begins with preparations. Among other things, the ground around the animal is washed away.
April 20: After weeks of being largely motionless, the whale swims up during unusually high water levels. But a little later it lands on a sandbank in an even shallower area of the bay. The original rescue plan is then discarded.
April 23rd: The initiative begins with the construction of a 110-meter-long channel to be able to bring the whale out of the shallow area. At the same time, a new rescue concept is being developed with a special barge in which the animal will be transported away floating like in a pool.
Here Timmy is being transported in the barge.Image: DPA
April 26th and 27th: The barge chartered by the initiative reaches the site at the whale. According to Backhaus, the animal is in “relatively good condition.” However, criticism from experts continues; they consider the animal to no longer be able to survive.
April 28: The humpback whale is directed through the channel into the barge. This is then pulled by a tugboat out of the Bay of Wismar towards the North Sea.
Whale Timmy meets his end off the Danish coast
April 29th and 30th: The tug train carrying the whale passes waters in the Kattegat between the Danish island of Jutland and the Swedish west coast.
May 1st: On the Skagerrak near the northern tip of Jutland, a difficult situation arises when waves are high because the barge is not designed for this. The journey is interrupted and the convoy pauses in calmer waters back in the Baltic Sea.
May 2nd: The journey initially continues in the Skagerrak north of Skagen. In an action that the rescue initiative portrays as hasty and hasty, the whale is said to be maneuvered into the North Sea by the ship’s crew. Images later show a swimming whale breathing after a dive. Position data is not transmitted despite a tracking device still attached to the humpback whale in the barge.
May 14th: A dead humpback whale is discovered off the Danish island of Anholt in the Kattegat between Denmark and Sweden. Tissue samples should clarify whether it is Timmy.
May 16: The Danish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirms that the whale carcass is Timmy.