Photo by Todd Cravens

A humpback whale that spent more than five weeks stranded in the shallow waters of Germany’s Baltic Sea coast has been released into the North Sea, after a privately funded rescue team loaded it onto a specially adapted barge and towed it hundreds of kilometres to deeper water.

The whale, nicknamed Timmy or Hope by the German media and rescue team, whose coverage of the animal’s deteriorating condition drew a vast global audience, was first spotted on 3 March near Germany’s Baltic coast, far from its natural Atlantic habitat. It became repeatedly stranded in the shallows, and its distress was broadcast via livestreams watched around the world.

Weeks of failed attempts

The whale’s troubles appear to have begun after it became entangled in netting. It was first stranded on Timmendorfer Beach in Lübeck Bay on 23 March, before moving east along the coast to Wismar Bay and eventually becoming lodged in a shallow area off the island of Poel – where it remained for 29 days. Earlier efforts to lure it toward deeper water failed, including an attempt using inflatable cushions and pontoons.

A private initiative – financed by entrepreneurs Karin Walter-Mommert and Walter Gunz – then hatched a more ambitious plan: guide the whale into the water-filled hold of a special barge and tow it back toward the open ocean. Rescuers dug a channel in the sand to allow the animal to reach the vessel, then swam alongside it as it entered the barge, sparking cheers from the crowd watching on shore.

Scientific scepticism

The operation proceeded over the objections of much of the marine science community. An expert International Whaling Commission panel warned that such plans were well meant, but that the animal looked “severely compromised and unlikely to survive even if moved to deeper water.” Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) was especially downbeat, cautioning that the whale had no long-term chance of survival and that its skin, damaged by the Baltic’s unusually low salinity, would need to fully recover before any rescue could be considered a success.

The German Oceanographic Museum warned the whale was at risk of drowning due to its weakened state. Marine biologist Fabian Ritter offered a more measured view, telling the German press agency DPA that the animal clearly had a “will to live”, but acknowledged that this type of rescue was unprecedented: “We don’t know what effect this will have on the whale.”

Released off Denmark

The environment minister for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Till Backhaus, gave the green light for the attempt and hailed the operation as a success, calling it “an example for Germany of what can be done.” The transport ship Fortuna B towed the barge through the Baltic Sea and into Danish waters, heading through the Skagerrak strait toward the North Sea.

On 2 May, the whale was released approximately 70 kilometres from Skagen, at Denmark’s northern tip. Walter-Mommert said Timmy exited the barge, blew air through its blowhole and swam off, describing only superficial injuries from the rough seas during transport. “It should now swim up the Norwegian coast toward the Arctic,” she told reporters.

A GPS transmitter was reportedly attached before release to track the whale’s onward movements, though early reports suggested the device was not functioning as intended.

Felix Bohnsack, the mission’s technical director, reflected on the moment the operation began: “The moment Hope swam into the barge was inconceivable,” he said. “We had tears in our eyes. These are images I will never forget.”