A barge carrying Timmy the humpback whale journeys to the North Sea
BERLIN — A barge carrying a humpback whale that had been stranded in shallow water near Germany since March has begun its journey toward the North Sea. It reached Danish waters on Wednesday, German authorities said. Nicknamed “Timmy” by German media, the whale was spotted swimming near Germany’s Baltic Sea coast on March 3, far from the Atlantic Ocean, its natural habitat. The mammal’s health deteriorated as it became repeatedly stranded in shallow waters, and unsuccessful efforts to coax it toward deeper seas were livestreamed across the globe. Rescuers pulled the whale to a flooded barge using straps and a channel previously dredged to create a passage to the vessel, the Germany press agency dpa reported. The barge is now expected to go around the northern tip of Denmark via the strait of Skagerrak toward the North Sea. “Something like this has never happened before in Germany, where a life-saving operation of this kind has been carried out,” Till Backhaus, minister for climate protection, agriculture, rural areas and the environment for the federal state of Mecklenburg Vorpommern, …
