{"id":426898,"date":"2026-05-05T18:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T18:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/426898\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T18:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T18:36:07","slug":"rescue-of-timmy-the-whale-an-all-round-catastrophe-after-tracker-failure-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/426898\/","title":{"rendered":"Rescue of Timmy the whale \u2018an all-round catastrophe\u2019 after tracker failure | Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marine biologists and whale experts have stepped up their criticism<\/a> of a privately funded operation to release a humpback whale that was stranded for weeks off Germany\u2019s Baltic coast after it emerged that a tracker fitted to the whale was not working.<\/p>\n

The whereabouts and health of the young male whale \u2013 nicknamed Timmy after one of the sandbanks it was stranded on \u2013 remain unknown three days after it was transported in a water-holding barge<\/a> pulled by a tugboat to waters off the coast of Denmark.<\/p>\n

The rescue initiative, estimated to have cost about \u20ac1.5m, was funded in part by Karin Walter-Mommert, the owner of one of the largest racehorse portfolios in Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Walter-Mommert, who confirmed to German media on Tuesday that the tracker was not working, had previously claimed the device was also supposed to transmit information on the animal\u2019s vital signs. This was disputed by some experts and environmental activists, including Greenpeace.<\/p>\n

The whale was first spotted stuck on a sandbank on 23 March near the city of L\u00fcbeck<\/a>, on Germany\u2019s Baltic Sea coast, before freeing itself and then becoming stuck again several times.<\/p>\n

The mammal\u2019s health deteriorated as it became repeatedly stranded in shallow waters near the coastal city of Wismar, and unsuccessful efforts to coax it toward deeper seas were livestreamed across the globe.<\/p>\n

The environment minister for Germany\u2019s Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state gave the green light for the attempt to save the whale, despite some warnings from the scientific community that it may be too much for the animal.<\/p>\n

Danish marine biologist Peter Madsen said that the lack of data from all stages of the operation was unusual and ill-advised. Photograph: Annegret Hilse\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it turns out that the device doesn\u2019t yield any information, it would be an all-round catastrophe, for the whale and the rescue team,\u201d whale researcher Fabian Ritter told German media. Ritter said that if it was not possible to determine if the whale had died then the entire operation would have been in vain.<\/p>\n

In a statement the German Oceanographic Museum in Stralsund said it believed the whale was \u201chighly likely\u201d dead and called on organisers of the rescue mission to release data from the tracker so that the operation could be assessed.<\/p>\n

Its scientists had been sceptical of the attempts to rescue the whale from the start, referring to it as animal cruelty, and stressing the likelihood that the whale would drown if it was not strong enough to swim in deep waters.<\/p>\n

The whale was last photographed swimming in the strait of Skagerrak. Danish authorities said in advance they would make no attempt to rescue the whale if it was subsequently found to be in difficulty, arguing that nature should be allowed to take its course.<\/p>\n

Danish marine biologist Peter Madsen said that the lack of data from all stages of the operation was unusual and ill-advised.<\/p>\n

He told the German Press Agency (DPA) that it appeared data was being guarded by a small group of people, including the initiators of the operation and the environment ministry for the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, calling it \u201cvery strange and unprofessional\u201d. The environment ministry said it was still waiting to receive data from the private initiative, as well as information about the animal\u2019s condition.<\/p>\n

There were confusing reports surrounding the decision to release the whale. Photograph: Philip Dulian\/AP<\/p>\n

Neither the rescue initiative nor the environment ministry responded to requests for information about which tracking device was being used.<\/p>\n

There were also confusing reports surrounding the decision to release the whale. Kirsten T\u00f6nnies, a vet who had been on board the Fortuna B, one of two rescue ships accompanying the whale, was reportedly barred from witnessing the second and final release attempts.<\/p>\n

T\u00f6nnies said that tensions had been high between the experts on board and the ship\u2019s crew. She said she disagreed with how the whale was released backward from the barge and with the fact she had been barred from giving the medical all-clear beforehand.<\/p>\n

The ship\u2019s operators were unavailable for comment. The Fortuna B\u2019s tracking signal appears to have been switched off, according to authorities and vessel trackers.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement, Walter-Mommert and her co-financier, Walter Gunz, one of the founders of a leading electronics chain, distanced themselves from the manner of the whale\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hereby expressly distance ourselves from the events and the manner in which the whale was abandoned,\u201d they wrote, calling for \u201cany consequences\u201d to be borne \u201cby the owner, the operators, and any crew members of the ships Fortuna B and Robin Hood\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marine biologists and whale experts have stepped up their criticism of a privately funded operation to release a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[85,46,141,386],"class_list":["post-426898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}