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After several days of uncertainty, authorities have confirmed that the dead whale stranded off a Danish island is the humpback whale known as “Timmy”.
The confirmation came from Denmark’s Environmental Protection Agency, according to the Ritzau news agency, with broadcaster TV 2 among the first to report it.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Environment Minister Till Backhaus has since also confirmed the whale’s death.
Denmark’s nature protection agency, Miljøstyrelsen, said a GPS transmitter was found on the carcass, confirming it was the same humpback whale previously sighted in the Baltic Sea and later stranded off the German coast.
“We can now confirm that the humpback whale stranded off Anholt is the same whale that had previously stranded in Germany,” agency head Jane Hansen said in a written statement.
Authorities have so far been unable to recover the GPS device because of poor weather conditions.
The whale had been released just two weeks ago following a dramatic and highly debated rescue operation after repeatedly becoming stranded along Germany’s Baltic Sea coast, authorities said on Saturday.
Timmy was first spotted off the German coast on March 3. It remains unclear why the humpback whale entered the Baltic Sea, a region far outside its natural habitat and poorly suited to the species. Some marine experts believe the animal may have become disoriented while following shoals of herring or during migration.
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