{"id":375067,"date":"2026-03-31T18:21:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T18:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/375067\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T18:21:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T18:21:20","slug":"humpback-whale-stranded-again-as-odyssey-off-baltic-sea-coast-stretches-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/375067\/","title":{"rendered":"Humpback whale stranded again as odyssey off Baltic Sea coast stretches on"},"content":{"rendered":"

A humpback whale that has become stranded repeatedly off Germany\u2019s Baltic Sea coast in recent days has got stuck again, authorities said, less than a day after swimming free.<\/p>\n

But rescuers were hopeful that it could still find its way out into the open sea.<\/p>\n

The whale, which is 12-15 metres (39-49ft) long, swam free late on Monday from the spot near the German port of Wismar where it had been stuck since the weekend.<\/p>\n

\"ThreeThree water birds sit on a humpback whale in Wismar Bay, near Wismar, Germany (Philip Dulian\/dpa via AP)\n<\/p>\n

It disappeared from view for hours until it was seen on Tuesday morning off an island called Walfisch \u2013 as it happens, a dated German word for \u201cwhale\u201d.<\/p>\n

Police and the environmental group Greenpeace sent rubber boats to accompany the whale, but it turned off a course that would have taken it out of Wismar Bay and into an inlet, where it was stranded again, said Till Backhaus, the environment minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state.<\/p>\n

Rescuers were at least able to prevent it from swimming far into the inlet, and it is once again in deep enough water that it could swim off under its own steam, Greenpeace marine biologist Thilo Maack said at a televised news conference.<\/p>\n

An effort last week to rescue the whale from a shallow underwater sandbank at Timmendorfer Strand, a resort town around 50 kilometres (31 miles) from its current location, eventually succeeded with the help of an excavator.<\/p>\n

But the apparently exhausted whale was soon in trouble again, albeit in somewhat deeper water.<\/p>\n

\"AA police inflatable boat approaches a humpback whale lying in the Bay of Wismar, Germany (Philip Dulian\/dpa via AP)\n<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, officials were again banking on giving it peace and quiet to gather enough strength to swim away, and possibly approaching it with boats to motivate it to set off.<\/p>\n

The drama has captivated Germans, with media sending detailed updates on its progress.<\/p>\n

Even if it swims off again, the whale is still far from its natural habitat.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur aim is (for it to get) out of Wismar Bay, into the Baltic Sea, through Danish waters into the North Sea, and then into the Atlantic where the whale belongs,\u201d Mr Maack said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese animals are designed for depths that are beyond anything found anywhere in the Baltic Sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

The whale was first spotted swimming in the region on March 3.<\/p>\n

It is not clear why the whale swam into the Baltic Sea.<\/p>\n

\"AA whale lies on a sandbank in the Bay of Wismar, Germany (Philip Dulian\/dpa via AP)\n<\/p>\n

Some experts say the animal may have lost its way when it swam after a shoal of herring, or during migration.<\/p>\n

No tracker has been attached to the whale because its skin is in a poor state after long exposure to the relatively low salt concentration of the Baltic.<\/p>\n

Even to reach the North Sea, it faces a journey of several hundred kilometres.<\/p>\n

Mr Backhaus said a check on the whale\u2019s health on Monday had shown that \u201cit has potential\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course it is sick, all of us know that, and what other internal problems it has we don\u2019t know,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

But \u201cI am still keeping my fingers crossed and I hope that we will still have a good ending\u201d, Mr Backhaus said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A humpback whale that has become stranded repeatedly off Germany\u2019s Baltic Sea coast in recent days has got…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-375067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}