Things are getting very emotional
No Hope Left: Whale “Timmy” Will Die
Things are not looking good for the humpback whale “Timmy” in the Baltic Sea: Experts have given up hope for the marine mammal. In their assessment, trying to revive him would amount to animal cruelty. But some people simply refuse to accept this fate.
“The time has come to let him go,” Burkard Baschek, an expert involved in the rescue effort, reluctantly stated the sad truth at a press conference. Rescue attempts are being called off.
The fate of “Timmy” also weighs heavily on Environment Minister Till Backhaus. The animal should be left in peace at its current resting place: “He’s had his chance. Easter is approaching. And I was raised Protestant. And you know what Easter is. That’s when you’re in God’s hands. And we also know what happened to Jesus.” Angry users refused to accept the animal’s impending death and unleashed a storm of criticism on the minister’s Instagram profile—which reportedly left him deeply shaken.
Onlookers out in boats
The whale drama has also drawn onlookers to the scene. They wanted to approach the marine mammal by boat, reports the “Bild Zeitung.” According to the report, the water police even had to intervene.
The marine mammal was breathing and moving on Wednesday morning, as the water police observed. However, the situation is problematic. “The whale’s position is unfavorable because the water in the area is very shallow, and that will change very little by tomorrow. In addition, the bay is very winding,” said Backhaus.
No Rescue Operation
A spokesperson for the Ministry of the Environment confirmed that there was no further rescue operation for the humpback whale off Wismar’s Baltic Sea coast on Tuesday evening or overnight. The intention was to leave the animal undisturbed in the hope of still managing a rescue.
“It has been shown that it can be worthwhile to give the animal some peace. We will now give it that peace,” was the message early this morning, but the situation remained critical. The whale, which had already stranded several times, had become stuck on Tuesday in the shallow waters off the island of Poel.
On the Baltic Sea coast since early March
The humpback whale initially stranded on a sandbar in Schleswig-Holstein off Timmendorfer Strand on the night of March 23. Later, the animal managed to leave the shallow water after rescuers dug a channel. On Saturday, it was then spotted in shallow water off Wismar.
The animal had submerged in the meantime but was spotted again on Tuesday morning. At first, it was swimming freely, but then Environment Minister Till Backhaus (SPD) and Greenpeace reported that the marine mammal, now nicknamed “Timmy,” was stuck again.
According to reports, the whale had been appearing repeatedly along the Baltic Sea coast since early March, first in the port of Wismar, later in Lübeck Bay, and along the coast near Steinbeck (Nordwestmecklenburg district). The animal had reportedly become entangled in a net. Rescue teams and marine conservationists from the organization Sea Shepherd had freed it from part of the material.
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