Berlin – Rescue teams in northern Germany are working to refloat a stranded humpback whale in the shallow waters of the Baltic Sea, in a race against time to save its life.
Experts met Tuesday morning at Timmendorfer Strand beach to find a way to remove the 30-foot (10-meter) long mammal after the high tide around midnight was not enough for the animal to swim free, the German news agency dpa reported.
The rescue efforts carried out on Monday afternoon with police boats, inflatable boats and the help of firefighters’ drones that guided the rescue efforts were also unsuccessful.
The animal is still alive, breathing, making sounds and occasionally raising its head, Carsten Mannheimer of the marine conservation organization Sea Shepherd told dpa.
So far, all rescue efforts have proven difficult.
At first, the rescuers managed to turn the whale’s head toward deeper waters, hoping it would find its way back, but the animal returned to its previous position. Coast guard and firefighter boats passed by, creating large waves in the hope of freeing the animal, but also without success, German public broadcaster NDR reported.
The animal, which weighs several tons, cannot be actively returned to deeper waters because it could be seriously injured in the process, according to experts.
“If the whale cannot leave the beach, it is a death sentence for the animal,” Sea Shepherd’s Sven Biertümpfel told NDR, adding that the whale’s condition deteriorates by the hour.
Experts assume that it is a young male, since males, unlike females, tend to migrate. It also appears to be the same whale that has been spotted several times in the port of Wismar in eastern Germany in recent weeks.
It was not immediately clear why the whale became stranded, but rescuers found parts of a fishing net wrapped around the whale’s body, which they managed to cut away.
Meanwhile, police cordoned off the beach area with construction fences to keep a large crowd of onlookers at bay.
This story was translated from English to Spanish with an artificial intelligence tool and was reviewed by an editor before publication.