The German authorities have defended their decision to allow a risky rescue attempt of a stranded whale to go ahead, despite experts warning it was \u201cinadvisable\u201d because the animal was hurt and unlikely to survive.<\/p>\n
The saga of the whale, known as Timmy, had gripped Germany since the beached humpback was spotted stranded on Timmendorfer beach, a sandbank in shallow waters near the coast, nearly two months ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Saturday the whale\u2019s death was confirmed by the Danish authorities<\/a>, two weeks after it was transported to the North Sea<\/a> in a rescue attempt.<\/p>\n Denmark\u2019s Environmental Protection Agency said a whale had been found dead on Friday near \u200bthe small \u2060island of Anholt in the Kattegat, a broad strait between Denmark<\/a> and Sweden, and confirmed it was Timmy on Saturday.<\/p>\n The agency told people to stay away from the whale\u2019s body due to the possibility it may carry diseases, but on Sunday the Bild newspaper reported that two people had apparently posed for selfies next to the animal\u2019s carcass.<\/p>\n The whale was floated away from the sandbank and into a water-filled barge which was towed to the open sea. Photograph: Action Press\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n Till Backhaus, the Social Democratic (SPD) environment minister for the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, insisted he had been right to allow the privately funded mission to go ahead, saying it was \u201cperfectly human to seize even the slightest opportunity\u201d.<\/p>\n In comments reported by Bild, he added: \u201cIt was always a matter of weighing up which option was the worst: waiting for the animal\u2019s certain death in agony or giving him one last chance and potentially exposing him to stress.\u201d<\/p>\n German officials had initially given up trying to save the whale, saying they believed it could not be freed from where it had become stranded. But after a national outcry, two millionaires said they were prepared to pay \u201cwhatever it costs\u201d to release the creature.<\/p>\n The rescue attempt \u2013 which is believed to have cost about \u20ac1.5m (\u00a31.3m) \u2013 involved floating the whale away from the sandbanks and into a water-filled barge, which was pulled by a tugboat from Wismar Bay near the German city of L\u00fcbeck to deeper waters off the coast of Denmark<\/a>.<\/p>\n There were hopes for the whale\u2019s survival after it swam away in deeper waters. Photograph: NonstopNews\/Jens Schwarck\/Reuters TV\/Reuters<\/p>\n