US EditionGerman rescuers plan to use air cushions to save Timmy the stranded whale
Experts are using air cushions and a tugboat to move the weakened whale after repeated rescue attempts failed, officials said.
- On Thursday, German rescuers began an elaborate operation to save a sick humpback whale nicknamed Timmy, stranded in shallow waters near the Baltic Sea coast at Wismar.
- The 12 to 15 meters long whale never found its way back to the North Sea, and previous rescue efforts failed while the animal weakened in the Baltic Sea's low salt content.
- Police established a 500-meter protection zone to prevent curious bystanders from stressing the animal after a 67-year-old woman jumped off a boat trying to get closer to Timmy.
- State Environment Minister Till Backhaus announced a new rescue plan on Wednesday using air cushions to lift the whale onto a tarp, with state officials approving the private transport initiative.
- If the operation succeeds, a tugboat will carry Timmy out of the Baltic Sea by Friday, aiming to return the whale to the North Sea or Atlantic Ocean.
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64 Articles
It has been 17 days since a passer-by discovered a humpback whale stranded in front of the island of Poel, on the Baltic coast, and warned the river police of Wismar. “I thought it was a rock, but then the rock breathed,” he explained to the agents. The animal, which is 12,35 meters long, 3.20 meters wide and 1.60 meters high, immediately began to be monitored by the experts of the German Oceanographic Museum of Stralsund, who immediately warned…
For biological as well as veterinary reasons, any further rescue is neither sensible nor reasonable for the animal, stress environmental protection organizations and scientists. Moreover, it is completely unclear whether the proposed method is suitable for a humpback whale.
The humpback whale is a seriously ill patient, says the Environment Minister of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Experts no longer saw a chance for rescue attempts.
Gunz and his fellow fighters have received permission to save the stranded Baltic Sea Wall. What is known about the entrepreneur.
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